ISSN 2359 – 9081 ISSN–L 2359 – 9081 EDITURA RISOPRINT Cluj-Napoca, 2014

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CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

International Conference NATURA – ECON 4 Environmental Dynamics under the Impact of Economic Trends – Realities and Perspectives

7th March 2014 Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania

Copyright © 2014 RISOPRINT All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the editors. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: DALLAGO Bruno, University of Trento, Italy FAZAKAS József, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania FÁBIÁN Attila, University of West Hungary, Sopron, Hungary GÖRÖG Mihály, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary HEIDRICH Balázs, Budapest Business School, Hungary HORVÁTH Gyula, University of Pécs, Hungary IVANOVA Nedka, University of National & World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria KRISTÁLY Alexandru, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania MATIŞ Dumitru, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania MISHEV Plamen, University of National & World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria NAGY Imre, University of Novi Sad, Serbia NISTOR Răzvan, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania OLTEANU Laura, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania OZUNU Alexandru, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania PÁLVÖLGYI Tamás, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary PLĂIAŞ Ioan, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania RECHNITZER János, Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary RÉTI Kinga, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania TAMÁS János, University of Debrecen, Hungary TIRON-TUDOR Adriana, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania TÓTHNÉ SZITA Klára, University of Miskolc, Hungary VINCZE Mária, Transylvanian Museum Society & Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Editor: BÍRÓ Boróka Júlia Language Editors: BIRÓ Enikő CSISZÉR Levente KELEMEN Antónia Izabella Technical Editor: TÓTH Vanda Cover Design: MATEI László

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Conference Organizing Institutions

CONFERENCE ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania The Babeş-Bolyai University is the oldest academic institution in Romanian, which embodies the entire academic tradition in Transylvania, inaugurated with the Jesuit College founded by Prince Stephan Bathory in 1581. The Babeş-Bolyai University brings together the cultural, scientific, and religious traditions in Transylvania . The Babeş-Bolyai University has developed a multicultural educational programme according to the legislation in force in Romania and according to European values. The symbols and inscriptions in the languages of the ethnic communities are present at Babeş-Bolyai University . Babes-Bolyai University is an academic educational public institution aiming to promote and sustain the development of specific cultural components within the local, regional, national and international community. In the present context these components are:  

a permanent and innovative learning culture multiculturalism, intercultural dialogue and collaboration between different religions  an action culture based on systematic and innovative knowledge (culture of scientific and technological competence, organizational competence and civil competence)  a culture for personal and moral development  a culture for an active attitude and participation  a culture for personal development  a culture for integration in diversity and for globalization, in terms of respecting the identity and reciprocity; Located in an area with a strong interethnic and interconfessional character, Babes-Bolyai University has chosen multiculturalism as its main direction of development, its students and teachers being Romanian, Hungarian, German and even representatives of the Romani people. Through its educational programs UBB enrolls more than 40,000 students. At BA level there are 22,771 undergraduate students studying in Romanian, 4,211 in Hungarian, 1,020 in German, 463 in English and 45 in French. At Master's level 6,811 students are studying in Romanian, 840 students in Hungarian, 688 students in English, 163 students in German, and 49 students in French.

The multicultural structure can also be found in postgraduate programs as well as in short duration programs within the network of 12 university extensions (depending on location) in Transylvania. Currently the 25 doctoral schools of UBB, covering 29 doctoral fields, enroll 2,564 doctoral students, out of which 152 doctoral students are foreign students. All doctoral students are advised by over 250 doctoral supervisors. In March 2013 the teaching and research staff of the Babes-Bolyai University amounted to 1,866 people, 82.2 % of them holding teaching positions, and 17.8 % research positions. Hungarian and German students have the right to participate in all academic activities, being able to choose by vote their representatives in the University Senate and Academic Council. To comply with the multicultural structure, all positions within the University (especially the leadership positions) are organized according to the three ethno-linguistic components. It is mandatory that within each faculty the vice-dean or scientific secretary belong either to the Hungarian or German minority in order to coordinate the activity of their own lines of study. Furthermore, at the level of the university, each of these lines of study is represented by a vice-rector, a member in the Senate College, and a specific general secretariat. Thus, the executive leadership of the university comprises 20 representatives of these ethnic groups through vice-rectors, deans, vice-deans, scientific secretaries and heads of departments. The system of multicultural organization set up by theCharter of BabeşBolyai University (1995) ensures complete education in Romanian, Hungarian, German, as well as Jewish studies at all levels of academic study: bachelor, master, doctorate, long distance and adult education. This system ensures, through adequate regulations, the autonomy of the Romanian, Hungarian, and German lines of studies and the right to draw up and implement own decisions regarding human resources, international cooperation, scientific research, and to publish in Romanian, Hungarian or German. The regulations adopted by Babeş-Bolyai University were drawn up taking into account the best interest of Romanians, of the Hungarians, of the Germans, of the Jewish people, as well as the legislation of the Romanian state, the criteria of performance and of professionalism. The multicultural system transformed Babeş-Bolyai University into the largest and most complex university in Romania . Never before have so many Romanians studied at the main university of Transylvania; never before have so many Hungarians studied here; never before have there been more opportunities to study in German; never before has the history and the culture of the Jewish people been so broadly covered in academic circumstances. Never before has there been such a diversified range of specializations. The multicultural and multilingual system set up at Babeş-Bolyai University has been evaluated positively by qualified international bodies - The II

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OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities , Salzburg Seminar, European University Association - and has consequently been recommended internationally as model of organization. The multicultural system has been appreciated positively by prestigious universities in Europe, with whom Babeş-Bolyai University has agreements of interuniversity cooperation, and with whom it organizes regular meetings to establish and evaluate key features of the cooperation programmes. The recommendations made by The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities with a view to improving the multicultural system have been fully included in the universityCharter , and have been implemented since 2001. The Babeş-Bolyai University constantly promotes professionalism and competitiveness for the integration in the European Higher Education Area. Up to this day there has never been any complaint of ethnic discrimination. Every international evaluation has shown positive conclusions. The publishing houses of the Babeş-Bolyai University encourage the use of widely spoken languages. They edit publications in Romanian, Hungarian and German.  The diplomas of study are issued in the official language of the state, as stipulated in the Constitution of Romania . PhD. Diplomas can also be issued in widely spoken languages.  Romanian, Hungarian and German are the language of teaching and communication for one of the main lines of study of the Babeş-Bolyai University .  The recommendations made by The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities have been entirely included in the Babeş-Bolyai University regulations and have been implemented as such.  The autonomy of decision of the Romanian, Hungarian and German line of study in the university is a reality certified by the presence of Romanians, Hungarians and Germans in all decision bodies, as well as by the international evaluations of the Babeş-Bolyai University . 

Source:http://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/despre/misiune/misiune , http://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/despre/misiune/caracter_multicultural

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Research Institute for National Strategy (Hungary) Research Institute for National Strategy in the Service of National Integration Jenő Szász, president The most valuable resource of the Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin, ahead of all natural and economic resources, is human wealth: people with Hungarian as their mother-tongue, belonging to the Hungarian cultural circle. In 2020 it will have been a century since one third of this Hungarian human wealth – every three out of ten Hungarians – came under the jurisdiction of foreign states. According to forecasts, within a few decades, Hungary’s population will decrease by a further half million people, while the Hungarian diaspora – because of assimilation and emigration from the Carpathian basin – is expected to shrink by hundreds of thousands. Looking at the directions of development, it is visible that the majority of Hungarians have no unified vision of the future, and do not understand the essence of national strategy, either. We do not know, or apparently, we do not want to know the kind of country we wish to leave behind as a legacy for the generation coming after us. It seems we live for today, and lack any specific feeling of responsibility towards the coming generations. We have yet to reveal our history and yet to get completely over the failures we experienced throughout history, and we also tend to let our culture and language get dissolved in a globalized world culture. We do not know (or have forgotten) where we come from, and where we are going. THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL STRATEGY This historical constraint and characteristic are the reasons behind the establishment of an institute equally concerned with all Hungarian communities around the world, which is an essential condition for the persistence and for ensuring future perspectives of Hungarians. The Hungarian government, having recognized the importance of these objectives and mission, founded the Research Institute for National Strategy by its decree No. 346/2012. (XII. 11.). Accordingly, the fundamental objectives of the Research Institute for National Strategy focus on the survival and growth of the Hungarian communities living on their homeland but divided between several countries of the Carpathian basin as a result of the

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tormentous events of the 20th century; and in the same time, preserving their cultural identities. The new European integration has brought the never returning and historic moment of cross-border national unification, as in the coming decades, the linguistic and cultural homogeneity within communities, as fundamental aspects of social and economic stability, will become very important. National unification – beyond the fact that it helps preserve and strengthen national identity awareness – first of all will have to ensure livelihood on one’s native land for Hungarians or for people belonging to the Hungarian cultural circle. An essential condition of success is that from a scattered nation we build a world nation, that is a new commonwealth. In order for the Hungarians to be able to preserve and even better, populate the land of their ancestors, then in the coming decades it is necessary to responsibly protect and increase the Hungarian human wealth. By extending the Hungarian citizenship, as well as by adopting the Act on the Testimony for National Cohesion, the Government – from the perspective of public law – has made the first step towards the above direction. The second step is ensuring professional and political awareness, as well as setting the basis of a new national political doctrine. According to the experience of the last twenty years, the political representations outside Hungary were unable to prevent the decrease and loss of power of the Hungarian communities living beyond our borders. In order to obtain a paradigm shift and prevent this trend it is necessary and unavoidable that domestic policy is promoted to national policy. In view of the fact that Bucharest, Belgrade, Bratislava and Kiev have opposing interests in this respect, Budapest can be the only starting-point of this mission. The third step is creating the economic power necessary for accomplishing the new national strategy thus established, and for this a change of mind-set is required: we must think in coherent systems within the Carpathian basin, which, beyond the involvement of our own – natural and human –, as well as European Union resources, also allow for a sustainable, planned and organized Hungarian economy. The preservation and further consideration of the condition of Hungarians within the Carpathian basin and worldwide is motivated by the fact that in the current historical context, the chances of national integration have arrived at a historic moment also in the Carpathian basin, which seems unlikely to return any time soon. The enhanced system of instruments of globalization offers the opportunity for the living and organically existing Central-European tradition, common values and historical remembrance to be preserved and spread in a comprehensive, attractive and efficient manner throughout the areas where Hungarians live. In the 21st century, following political and economic integration, the time has come for national integration, too. In the European community space there are no longer Hungarian issues within and beyond country borders. Instead, there are only common Hungarian issues in which every Hungarian is responsible for their V

fellow nationals. Today, the disadvantages of the scattered nature of the Hungarian nation can be turned into advantages, provided that we are able to organize the fragmented Hungary into an economically and culturally functional network within the Carpathian Basin. As the Carpathian Basin dimension seems the most obvious solution for the economic and social problems of our homeland, the future of Hungarians does not lie in a country populated by 10 million people, but in the Hungarian nation formed by its 15 million people. The elaboration and systematization of these new theoretical and practical methods of national resource-utilization is an opportunity and also a responsibility for the Research Institute for National Strategy. Although we have received a lot of help throughout our work carried out so far, we have also experienced the phenomenon called “they neither understand nor feel it”, which on the one hand can be understood from a historical point of view (legacy of the Kádár regime), but I, as a Sekler, can hardly accept it. We believe that by the cross-border unification of the nation we must also give new content and dimension to the concept of homeland. There is an increasing number of people for whom it is obvious that our different economic, demographic and social problems cannot really be solved separately. Therefore, if a change is to take place in the way we solve problems, this change will happen more or less at the same time in the life of the entire Hungarian nation. In addition, the dimension of the Carpathian basin is the most obvious frame of solution for the problems of Hungarian and other nations living here. WHAT IS NATIONAL STRATEGY? National strategy gives an answer to what our vision for the future is and what our goals for national strategy are for the period between 2014 and 2020, and for the period following the growing-up of the next generation and the one after (let’s say, until 2050). At the same time, it also looks back into the past and connects the present with the future. It also gives an answer to the “where do we come from” and “where are we going” question. National strategy – as some sort of background directing or organizing principle – sets a guideline for Hungarians, without establishing complicated laws or multi-level institution-systems, on the one hand marking the direction of progress and development, and on the other hand, offering a point of reference for the important daily decisions. It seems that our previous leaders – who focused on their own interests instead – left the people – from whom they received their democratic mandate – to deal with their own daily problems themselves. Thus, the “ship of our country” floated aimlessly “on the unforeseeable currents of troubled waters”. The elaboration of the national strategy may also represent a more conscious alternative to country-leadership against the drifting – “ad-hoc”, communicational etc. – governance. So the conclusion is that the elaboration of a National Strategy needs to be preceded by the complete and trustworthy exploration of the country’s natural VI

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(earth’s treasures, treasures of the forests and fields, waters, climate, ecosphere etc.) and human resources, as well as the dangers threatening them. A comprehensive and synthetized situation analysis is required. Only with the help of a real, evidence-based and objective situation analysis is it possible to accurately define the social, economic and security policy objectives based on which a stable and harmonious system of sectoral policies can be drawn upon – and therefore, providing a long-term reference for legislators. According to the above, the National Strategy is nothing more than a road that leads from the revealed present to a positive future. When it comes to the strategy elaboration work carried out after the change of the regime, the intuitive strategy designing practice – which lacked facts and a unified methodology – was not the only problem. So far it is still a problem that there has not been clearly defined a country image and vision for the future which the sectoral policies can be compatible with. In the lack of such value guidelines – basically formulated by politicians – the sectoral and regional policy designers often got lost, and following the investment of plenty of energy, they often put through conflicting development plans by means of the legislators (minister, Government, National Assembly). There are several examples from the previous years when the policy designers subordinated the elaboration of macro-level plans to third-party interests – foreign, European Union sectoral and other lobby group interests. Therefore it is necessary to define a positive “Carpathian homeland” image that, on the one hand can be logically set up for a trustworthy situation-analysis, on the other hand, is realistic, as well as it is sufficiently attractive in order to mobilize the people participating in value creation. In addition, the “Carpathian homeland” image must carry a clear and obvious message also to outsiders concerning the most important values of Hungarians, and the strategic measures that the motherland is putting in place in order to achieve them. In this case, we can make it clear also for the rest of the world what the areas in which people living here are capable of world-class performances are. The basis of social and economic policies is that those who are responsible for defining their content are aware of the background of resources on which these policies can be grounded, as well as that they define social and economic objectives according to these revealed resources. Such social and politic concept cannot be functional unless we are aware of the demographic, health, education, cultural, mental and emotional characteristics of the country’s population. Although the future of a country exclusively depends on the talent (namely, their determination, willingness, joint efforts, endurance and hard work) of its inhabitants and their leaders, the pace of development is fundamentally influenced also by the way in which a country manages its natural and human resources. Therefore, a successful economic policy can only be built upon resources revealed completely and in a trustworthy manner. Whoever in unaware of their own values,

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cannot succeed in a competition with others. However, whoever is also unaware of their weaknesses, is extremely vulnerable at the same time. Every strategy is worth to the extent to which it is implemented. An essential momentum of the implementation of the National Strategy is the allocation of resources to the appropriate objectives. In this process, the (human, natural, material) resources revealed define the basis of growth, while the identified strategic goals define the direction of growth. In a positive scenario, the more detailed breakdown of tasks, the definition of deadlines, budget limits and identification of the liable can be done in a more obvious way along the sectoral and regional policies deriving from the strategic goals (programming). Besides the breakdown of the National Strategy into lower-level plans (mid-term strategies, short-term programmes), it is essential to take carefully into account the tools of implementation. The former requires, by all means, the elaboration of a more coherent national strategy design system, while the latter necessitates a more thoughtful application of the regulatory, institutional, budgetary, funding policy and communication instruments available for achieving the social and economic objectives. Among the above mentioned implementation instruments it is worth focusing on the more cautious elaboration of the funding policy/development policy instruments (EU level/national level): basically subordinated to the objectives of the National Strategy, instead of an adhoc/intuitive way, deriving from a logic driven by individual/lobby interests. In our own approach, the National Strategy also comprises the definition of the main elements of the national policy, concerning which it is necessary to tackle some issues such as how can we reconnect the separated segments of the nation from an economic, social, cultural or legal perspective. Ultimately, our mission is to define a common Hungarian vision that all Hungarians living in the Carpathian basin (or even around the world) can identify themselves with. HOW IS THIS REFLECTED IN THE ACTIVITY OF THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL STRATEGY? In the short year of the actual functioning of the Institute we got in touch with a number of institutions in Hungary, which had been engaged in economic, demographic, educational and social research for a long time. I find it important that by organizing the results yet to be harmonized, together we make suggestions to the decision makers. As it is a huge problem, and all by ourselves we are too small for this task, our institute wishes to serve as a leaven, that is: extend knowledge and best practices to our partners; synchronize the results of different professional, scientific workshops, the activity of the involved public administration ministries, as well as European opportunities. As a governmental background institution, we focus on mid-term and longterm solutions. With a strategic agreement in mind, we made contact with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its several research institutes, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, university centres including Corvinus University of VIII

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Budapest, Eötvös Loránd University, the National University of Public Service, the University of Pécs or the University of West Hungary. We also contacted Hungarian communities, historical churches and NGO’s, and a statement of work with concrete goals and tasks has also been elaborated; our institute will work by this plan in the coming period. In this case, the aim and purpose of network development is the transfer of knowledge, including the systematic extension to the Carpathian basin of the foreign language courses and trainings unavailable in Hungarian, so that students are not compelled to go far from their homeland in order to study, by bringing the courses to the students; including also the transfer of didactical materials and literature in Hungarian to relevant centres outside the borders of Hungary – this is a goal we have embraced from the beginning. In the last couple of decades, there have been several well-intended initiatives with similar objectives, but these never managed to form a unified and vision-centred strategy. The elaboration and systematization of these new theoretical and practical methods of national resource-utilization in the Carpathian basin is an opportunity and also a responsibility for the Research Institute for National Strategy. As I have already mentioned before, in the last eight months we have established the working conditions in this respect, and according to the founding intention, we defined the strategy-led operation of the RINS, which will be included in the Carpathian homeland programme – A coordinated development programme for the Hungarian national communities within the Carpathian basin, currently taking shape. Towards the end of November 2013, the Research Institute for National Strategy was introduced also at the Hungarian representations in Brussels. We met with Mr. vice president László Surján, Hungarian MEP’s from the EPP Group, ambassadors and leading diplomats of the Hungarian missions in Brussels, colleagues from the Hungarian Development Center, a representative of the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the European Union, delegates of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, representatives of the Hungarian diaspora in Brussels, as well as with leading figures of the Hungarian scientific and church life in Brussels. Before the meetings, together with our subject matter experts we carefully analysed the experiences of the programming period between 2007 and 2013, and the new funding opportunities of the 2014–2020 development-funding period, recently adopted by the European Commission. We can state regarding both periods that the European Commission, with its different cohesion and development funds, particularly and emphatically promotes transnational, crossborder and directly EU-funded development oriented network construction. It does so mainly with the purpose of achieving the European development objectives, including the economic and regional integration objectives, as well as employment and social integration objectives set out in the EU 2020 Strategy.

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EU legislation has provided so far the possibility for a member state to fund cross-border, transnational co-operation programmes using their central EU funding (Regulation (EC) No 1081/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund, art. 8 and Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund, art. 21), but in the case of Hungary, the socialist government’s legislation made this completely impossible between 2007 and 2013. In the 2014–2020 funding cycle – up to 10% of the funds – in the case of the European Social Fund (ESF) – both in separate priority or horizontally – it will be compulsory to include transnational projects, too. These 2014–2020 funds are essential for Hungarians living in the Carpathian basin and for achieving the national integration. In the 2014–2020 development period ahead of us, both in the case of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF), it will be possible to obtain funds for implementing cross-border projects or projects outside of the programme area but within the EU, for up to 15–15 % of the certain funding available for Hungary. In the case of the ESF, cross-border funding is possible basically for transnational co-operation programmes. These may take place is separate priorities or horizontally, while in case of a planning of a separate priority in the given operative programme, the EU co-funding can be raised with 10 percent, thus decreasing the amount of the national funding. For the ESF, there is no percentage limit for funding programmes taking place outside of the country or of the programme area, but within the EU. In addition, for up to 3% of the given ESF programme, it will be possible to access funds for projects taking place outside of the programme areas and the EU (from a national integration perspective: Transcarpatia, Vojvodina or diaspora). The EU objectives happen to coincide at the moment with the implementation of national integration efforts with a view to connect Hungarian communities throughout the Carpathian basin. The EU allocates serious amounts of funding to cross-border macro-regional projects, provided that the funding will have a positive impact in the involved regions. In our case, the positive impact targets the development of the Hungarian communities, achievement of Hungarian strategic developments leading to national integration and construction of such networks, provided that we are able to consciously, systematically and harmoniously make use of the opportunities offered by the new directives governing the 2014–2020 development period. SUMMARY The morning after the tragic day of December 5, 2004, we, Hungarians living outside Hungary acknowledged with deep consternation and sadness that although there were many people in the motherland who voted yes for us, still, they were not enough in number. Exactly nine years after – this coincided with the X

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eve of the Forum of Hungarian Delegates throughout the Carpathian Basin – we had the opportunity to greet our brother, the Franciscan friar Csaba Böjte, who was the five hundred thousandth ethnic Hungarian to obtain the Hungarian citizenship via the simplified procedure. As the prime minister correctly said it about the institution of double citizenship: we have knocked down the lock from the door that the 20th century locked in front of us! Throughout our work so far – besides the funding – we encountered the phenomena called “they understand it but they cannot feel it” and “they neither understand nor feel it” both on the level of government leaders or among lowerlevel staff. These indicate the reflex-driven mentality of thinking only within 93 000 sqm, which could explain the partial results so far, but at the same time, it can also be a signal for the magnitude of the government’s task ahead. We – and I hope, as many of you as possible – know that the future of the nation does not lie within those 93 000 sqm but in the nearly fifteen million Hungarians or individuals belonging to the Hungarian cultural circle. We know where we are going, and we also know what we want. We want a new world around us. An environment worth to be born into, live and die in it. To study smart, work punctually and nicely, exist while understanding others and cooperate. As Endre Ady put it: ”Worshiping God and loving each other”. As the national integration means the construction of coherent Carpathian basin systems, I hereby suggest, in the light of these thoughts, that we shake hands. As if every Hungarian holds another Hungarian’s hand, we are able to hug the entire Carpathian basin!

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Transylvanian Museum Society It was the idea of the science written in mother tongue that lead the Transylvanian personalities since the 1760's, so that after a century thoughts would become deeds and dreams would become truth. The hardships of these one hundred years met in the foundation of a scientifical society and a library, represents in fact the difficult fate of the Hungarian people and among them the Hungarians of Transylvania – in spite of these difficulties they never gave up their dreams. Bod Péter (1760), count Batthány Ignác, Roman-Catholic Bishop of Transylvania (1785), Aranka György (1791), Döbrentei Gábor (1814– the founder of the first scientifical Hungarian magazine in Transylvania), Bölöni Farkas Sándor (1829– the elaborator of the first aim-oriented museum program) were those who dreamt about the Hungarian scientifical life, their dream could only come true in 1859 through the devotement and sacrifice of count Mikó Imre. For the fulfillment of this scope it were needed the dreams of the great personalities of that century. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) is the biggest scientifical society having an academical aspect. Its foundation was the result of that public will which had existed from the beginning of the Transylvanian Principality, but which could not had beed satisfied because of the hard conditions of that period. Also its foundation was decided in 1841–42 by the Transylvanian Parliament, it could have been founded only in 1859 due to the efforts of count Mikó Imre and his fellows as a civil organization concetrating Transylvanian scientists and scholars. This was called and it is called nowadays as well the Transylvanian Academy. The founding assembly was between the 23rd and 26th of November 1859 at Kolozsvár. Count Mikó Imre, the Széchenyi of Transylvania, the beginner of the association work was elected to be president (he also donated his house and garden in order to help materially the Society). In the conditions created by the absolutism Mikó considered the protection of the mother tongue the most important issue of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS), this could not have been the object of any bargain. He had been the president of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) till 1876. The Statute decided the three most important aims of the Society: –the foundation and the maintenance of the Society –the processing of the museum's material –the study and cultivation of science in Hungarian language Since its coming into being the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) had the support and trust of the Hungarian Academy of Science. Its activity had great impact in the cultivation of sciences: among the outstanding scholars we should mention Brassai Sámuel (1797–1897), Szabó Károly (1824–1890), Kőváry László (1819–1907), Jakab Elek (1820–1897), Márki Sándor (1853–1925), Balogh Ernő XII

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(1882–1969), Szádeczky Kardos Gyula (1860–1935), Schneller István (1847– 1939), Hőgyes Endre (1847–1906), Apáthy István (1863–1922), György Lajos (1890–1951), Tavaszy Sándor (1888–1951), Herman Ottó (1845–1912), Pósta Béla (1862–1919), Kelemen Lajos (1877–1963), Szabó T. Attila (1906–1987) and we could name others, too. During the years of existence more than 40 members of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) became members of the Hungarian Academy of Science. The books edited by it constitute a whole library of scientifical literature, which enrich the whole Hungarian culture. For this activity the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) was given in 2002 Hungarian Heritage Prize. In the very first decade of its existence the Society created a valuable collection of books, hand-written documents, coins and antiquities, natural science pieces and a letter archive which are now parts of the historical and natural treasures of Transylvania. In the same time with the museum's material processing different sections came into being as the scientific work had begun. The collections of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) and that of its scholars contributed to the fact that from among the competing cities of Transylvania Kolozsvár was chosen to have the second science university of the country.(Hungarian Royal Science University, later Ferenc József University). It is not just a coincidence that the two institutions began to collaborate: the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) let its book collection be used by the University for a sum allocated by the Hungarian state. Later it gave the Mikó Garden in order that the cliniques of the University should be built. In spite of its hesitations till the changes occurred in 1919 the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) served the fulfillment of its aims which were decided in the Statute. The regime-change of 1919, put the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) in a very difficult situation. Only after years of struggle could the license from the Romanian state be obtained, and meanwhile for the using of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS)'s collection neither the Hungarian University nor the Romanian which took the former's place paid the tax. The Romanian State institutes and universities took the following things being in the patrimony of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS): the library containing 120 000 of books, the institutional letter archive collected from the beginning of the existence, 35 000 pieces of antiquities, 20 000 coins, 1554 ethnographical articles, 64 839 zoological articles, and the collection of 73227 pieces of minerals and geological goods. This was the biggest scientific collection in Transylvania, collected through the efforts and sacrifices of the Transylvanian Hungarians from the beginnings of the existence of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS). No deal with the Romanian authorities was possible regarding the collections, but their safety was insured with a few exceptions by the Romanian university teachers, and the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) kept its control-right above these collections, it fought for the independence of the Society and for its legal properties. XIII

After the second WW, the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) had to face the difficulties of a new beginning, but they succeeded in the re-launching of the work. In 1947 based on false accusations among other Transylvanian institutions it was closed, its patrimony was given in the competence of state institutes. After a forced interruption of 40 years, in which its members kept the spirit of it and continued the scientific research in individual workshops, after the revolution of 1989 the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) began its activity as a legal entity based on the former already existing rules. With the knowledge of the legal continuity of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) it expressed its request for its patrimony and collections. The house of Wass Otília which in the Land Register still figured as her property, was given back by an Ordonance to the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) in 1998, but practically nothing had happened. Although there is no positive change regarding the collections either the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) cannot give up its fortune and independence. The Presidency considers still its duty the recovery of the collections. In spite of the undoubtedly existing obstacles – most of them financial – the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) found its function in the situation that followed the year 1989. Professor Jakó Zsigmond – the president – wrote in 1990: "We always considered the Transylvanian Hungarians part of the Hungarian nation and its culture part of the universal Hungarian culture, but we acted in our scientific activity so that it would be for the benefit of Romania and the Romanian and universal scientific life, and we would like to continue acting so in the future too. We consider that the interaction among nations is very important, and it is also very useful in the scientific activity. We are ready as well as an institution and individually for any kind of collaboration with everyone, who is an equal partner and needs our help." Since its renewal the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) continued its traditions and tries to reform structurally and essentially according to the new request of the society. The renewed Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS)'s aim was to form a new department: that of the technical sciences. This is the youngest department, it was constituted after 1990. This department takes care of the modern technical dotation of the workshops. The Mathematical and Informatics Department was formed in 2004, it continues its activity in the sign of modern science. The Agricultural Science Department was constituted in 2005. In our Society there is place for natural science and living science, too. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) under the Presidency of Benkő Samu created research groups made up by researchers who are employees of the Society. We are now working on the changing of these research groups into a Scientific Institute. The research groups are working on the topics included in the XIV

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basic strategy of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS). In the present there are 4 research groups built up of 12 researchers. Main duties: – to edit the Hungarian Dictionary of the History of Words – to discover historical sources from the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times and Modern Times (the earliest documents, royal books, legal acts, and the sources of other institutions) – applied informatical sciences – regional researches Our strategy is the organization of the regional research. Our aim is that in a period of 15 years we would be able to make the monograph of the different regions of Transylvania with the help of the interdisciplinary methods. This will be done in strong collaboration with the Hungarian Academy of Science's Institutes. The library which came into being as the donation of Jordáky Lajosné, and the name of which is The Jordáky Library contains the books of humanistic sciences, and the library from street Lakatos contains those of natural and technical sciences. In 2005 we renewed our collection of magazines in the central building. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) has a section which contains manuscripts, collection of facsimile editions and photographies. The collection also has the manuscripts from the heritage of Szabó T. Attila, Bözödi György, Kós Károly, Jordáky Lajos, Imreh István (or parts of these). The database of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) involves the data of the scientifical society of Transylvania, the electronic processing of Bolyai János's manuscripts from Marosvásárhely, the notes of Szabó T. Attila for the Hungarian Dictionary of the History of Words, which implies more than one million articles. There had been signed a collaboration act among 8 libraries from Cluj-Napoca in 2002, whose plan was to elaborate a virtual library: the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS), the Szabó T. Attila Linguistic Institute, the Heltai Gáspár Librarian Foundation, the Kriza János Ethnographical Foundation, the Center for Ethno-Cultural Minorities, the Society of the Hungarian Economists of Romania, the Sapientia Research Projects Institute will proceed electronically the data and will give it into use of the Virtual Library of Kolozsvár. In order that the researches would be modern and upto-date, we created a modern network in our central building with on-line internet connection. The importance of this is to supply information for the researchers and to make them able to access to electronic information easily. The thousands of magazines existing in the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS)'s possession, and the electronic editions (the database of the researchers) will help towards a better quality work and research. The publishing activity is part of the structure of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS). The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) publishes annually 8–10 volumes individually or in collaboration with other XV

publishers. Among these the volumes of Hungarian Dictionary of the History of Words, The Hungarian Literature Lexicon of Romania, The Székely Documentation Dictionary, the Transylvanian Scientific Notes, The Transylvanian Historical Data. These imply data from literature, social sciences, history, natural sciences and medicine. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) also has its own scientific magazines: The Transylvanian Museum (dating from 1874), The Museum Booklet, The Technical Booklets and the Medical Review. The books and magazines published by the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS), not only publishes the scientific results of Hungarian scientific life of Transylvania, but also contributes to the maintenance of the Hungarian language which is important for the future of Hungarians of Transylvania. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) is an institute of the whole Transylvania: it implies the sub-offices which exist at Nagyvárad, Zilah, Szilágysomlyó, Szatmár, Marosvásárhely, Gyergyószentmiklós, Barót and Sepsiszentgyörgy. These have autonomy, and their duty is to propagate the scientific aims of the regions. The travelling assemblies of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) are organized in collaboration with these sub-offices. On these occasions there are present Hungarian scholars, too. The organization of conferences is an institutional tradition. Besides the conferences of the Departments, the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) organizes conferences on historical dates to commemorate them individually or together with other institutions: in 2002 for the first time the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) organized the Day of Science in Transylvania, and this has become a tradition. In every year with occasion of the anniversary of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) they organize this conference. This conference is a good occasion for the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) to fulfill its integrating function in the future of the workshops to propagate scientific interaction and communication. The policy of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) will not omit the collaboration with Romanian scientific life either, considering it important for both of the parties. This is also valid for those of German and Saxon origin. To fulfill better its aims the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) had restructured and reformed its activity. It created its Academic Board, the members of which are the external members of the Hungarian Academy of Science and that of the Romanian Academy of Science. The representatives of the ordinary members are also members of this board. This board is a counseling organization of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS), and when necessary, takes part in resolving of scientific issues and problems. It is necessary for the scientific research that the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS)' workshops should self-organize themselves in a Research Institute. This is the duty of the Scientific Board according to the General Assembly's XVI

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decision in 2005. It is the result of the reform that there came into being the Committee for Manuscripts and the Committee for Publishing and Library. The Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) can only have flowering activity if the financial support is supplied. In the process of the integration to the UE the existence of the Transylvanian Museum Society (TMS) is twice motivated: to be the preserver of the historical and universal values of Transylvania and to contribute to the development of the science in Transylvania:

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Kárpátia Hungarian – Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry “Carpathia” Hungarian–Romanian Chamber of Commerce & Industry was established with the support of the Hungarian and Romanian governments on March 10, 2006 in Cluj-Napoca, at the initiative of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The Chamber is registered as a Romanian legal entity functioning as an association. Its general objective is to develop the economic and commercial relationships between Hungary and Romania, and to support the economic interests of its members. At the same time, its objective is to defend, under an institutional form, the interests of Hungarian companies operating in Romania and Romanian companies interested in Hungary or having relationships with companies in Hungary, as well as to assure professional support by its services. The Chamber provides useful information to small and medium-sized enterprises of both countries about the economy and the business environment of the countries, participating in the development of relationships in an active manner. The Chamber intermediates and develops business relations between the companies of the two countries. It shares related information throughout the entire Hungarian system of chambers, and offers targeted business partner mediation. It represents the interests of companies participating in bilateral economic relations in front of state entities, authorities and other bodies in Romania and Hungary. It offers consulting in the fields of investment, sales, legal affairs and taxation. It provides support for Hungarian and Romanian companies to enter the market, develop their marketing strategies and find optimal marketing channels. It provides information for members about investment opportunities announced by local municipalities in the two countries and about the conditions of market entry, as well as offers country-specific information. It keeps members informed about amendments to specific laws (e.g. tax law, companies act) and their effects. The Chamber monitors tenders and bids in the two countries, informs members about these possibilities and offers them application consultants, lawyers and notaries. It provides up-to-date economic information. It collects and shares information (in printed and electronic forms) about the economic, commercial and political situation in Romania and Hungary. The Chamber offers up-to-date information on its new website and provides regular information in the form of e-mail newsletters. It publishes monthly newsletters including new opportunities (tenders, investment opportunities etc.) relevant to members, as well as information about new members, past and forthcoming events.

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It helps to develop bilateral relations between the two countries in cooperation with chambers, business associations and municipalities. It organises events, professional seminars. It helps to organise programmes for economic delegations in the given country. It keeps records on commercial, acquisition and investment opportunities in the given country, shares information among those interested and builds a data base. This data base includes not only contact information on member companies but also all the partner organisations which can help to develop commercial relations between the two countries.

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CONTENTS CONFERENCE ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS ................................................VI

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

ECONOMICS ...........................................................................................................1 BALLA Emese......................................................................................................1 CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE VARIATION OF CROP YIELDS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF ROMANIA.........................................................1 BÍRÓ Boróka Júlia..............................................................................................15 Modernization of the Romanian Agricultural Holdings through the Implementation of Rural Development Measure 121.....................................15 BOTOS Attila .....................................................................................................23 POSSIBILITIES FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN COVASNA COUNTY ........................................................................................................23 DABASI_HALÁSZ Zsuzsanna, FEKSZI Kinga, HEGYI-KÉRI Ágnes ..........33 “DEEP DRILLING”, CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTAND THE LABOUR MARKET DEPRESSION OF MISKOLC ....................................33 DABASI-HALÁSZ Zsuzsanna, VIZKELETI Anna ..........................................43 "DOUBLE-FACE CITY", GREEN EXPERIMENTS IN AN INDUSTRIAL CITY ...............................................................................................................43 GERÉB László, AMBRUS Tibor .......................................................................54 THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SZEKLERLAND FROM HUMAN POINT OF VIEW ...............................................................54 HEGYI-KÉRI Ágnes ..........................................................................................66 DEINDUSTRIALIZATION OR REINDUSTRIALIZATION IN VISEGRAD COUNTRIES ..................................................................................................66 ILYES Ferenc .....................................................................................................81 IS THERE A NEED FOR COOPERATIVES IN THE FUTURE?................81 KOLEV Svilen ....................................................................................................89

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GAPS AND WEAKNESSES IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BULGARIAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: LESSONS LEARNED .........................89 SABEVA Monika, KOPEVA Diana ................................................................102 LAND USE AND LAND-COVER CHANGES IN BULGARIA................102 SABEVA Monika .............................................................................................111 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES FOR ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT (SIA), STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) and ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) .............111 VARJÚ Viktor ..................................................................................................117 ENVIRONMENTAL COHESION IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT..........................................................................................117 ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................................126 ANTAL Noémi, BARTHA Sándor, INCZE Réka............................................126 ENVIRONMENTAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC INVESTMENTS IN COVASNA COUNTY ..126 BOROŞ Melania-Nicoleta, MICLE Valer ........................................................138 ASPECTS CONCERNING CHOOSING OF PLANTS USED IN PHYTOREMEDIATION..............................................................................138 FAZAKAS József1, BENEDEK Csilla2, FAZAKAS Enikő 3* .........................146 RECYCLING OF ZRO2 WASTES IN METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY .146 KELEMEN Antonia Izabella ............................................................................154 NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN INTEGRATING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING.....................................154 LUPPINGER Thymea1, MIHAIU Marian2, ROTARU Ovidiu 3 VEGH Eva 4 ...........................................................................................................................163 CORRELATED STUDIES BETWEEN MILK CYTOMORPHOLOGY AND THE NUMBER OF SOMATIC CELLS.............................................163 MÉZES Lili 1, MOLNÁR Szabolcs, TAMÁS János ........................................169 ENSURING SLAUGHTERHOUSE WASTE FEATHER RECYCLING WITH BIOLOGICAL PRE-TREATMENT .................................................169 RUSU Andrei 1, PLUGARU Sebastian 1, ORBAN Mihaela 1, RUSU Tiberiu 1 ...........................................................................................................................178

THE MONITORING OF THE HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION EVOLUTION IN THE BABADAG LAKES AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM ...178 SÁNDOR Mónika, FAZAKAS József, BARTALIS Ildikó, SZŐKE AnnaMaria .................................................................................................................186 CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PEAT FROM COMANDĂU AND ITS ALCALINE EXTRACTS ............................................................186 SIKÓ BARABÁSI Sándor, BOTOS Gyöngyvér, SÁNDOR Mónika, ANTAL Noémi, JAKABFI Anna Mária .........................................................................194 EVOLUTION OF COLLEMBOLAN POPULATION AS ECOTOXICOLOGICAL INDICATOR OF SOILS IN COVASNA COUNTY .......................................................................................................................194 SZŐKE Anna-Mária, MUNTEAN Marcela, BARTALIS Ildikó, SÁNDOR Mónika ..............................................................................................................202 THE INFLUENCE OF CLAY FINENESS UPON SLUDGE RECYCLING IN A CERAMIC MATRIX...........................................................................202 FINANCE, ACCOUNTING, INTERNATIONAL TRADE ................................208 BÍRÓ Bíborka Eszter ........................................................................................208 THE SITUATION OF THE NON-REIMBURSABLE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES THROUGH THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME IN THE ROMANIAN NORTH-WEST REGION FOR THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD.....................208 BÍRÓ Bíborka Eszter, TAMÁS Ervin ..............................................................217 FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE NON-REIMBURSABLE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES THROUGH THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME IN THE ROMANIAN NORTH-WEST REGION FOR THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD.....................217 CSŐSZ Csongor................................................................................................223 THE FINANCIAL AUDIT OF THE TANGIBLE ASSETS AND THE ACCOUNTING POLICIES APPLIED BY ENTITIES FOR THEM ..........223 KOZAK Tamas, MEDVÉNÉ SZABAD Katalin..............................................232 MAKING FORECASTS IN CASE OF OPENING NEW BUSINESSES...232 KRÁJNIK Izabella, FÜLÖP Melinda Timea....................................................239 THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZING FUNCTION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING ............................................................................................239 SZILÁGYINÉ FÜLÖP Erika............................................................................248

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THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS OF CHAMBERS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE SINCE 1994 UP TO NOW .......................................................................................................................248 MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, TOURISM....................................................258 BĂLTEANU Cristina .......................................................................................258 THE MARKETING OF ECOLOGICAL FOOD PRODUCTS ...................258 BARANYI Rita.................................................................................................266 SUSTAINABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION – ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT THINKING RELATED TO OPERATIONAL PROCESSES.................................................................................................266 BOGDÁN Laura, MOGA Mónika....................................................................277 CORRELATION BETWEEN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ROMANIA .....................................................277 FOSZTÓ Mónika, OLTEANU Laura ...............................................................285 THE DEVELOPMENT OF CYCLE TOURISM IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF ROMANIA .............................................................................285 HORVÁTH Viktória.........................................................................................293 ANALYSING STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION IN A GRANT APPLICATION PROJECT – THE CASE OF A UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT .......................................................................293 KULCSÁR Erika ..............................................................................................305 IMPACT OF ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT ON NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE ATTITUDE OF DIFFERENT NATIONS TOWARDS LIFE .........................................................................................305 MADARAS Szilárd ..........................................................................................313 NEW ECONOMICAL TRENDS REGARDED TO REGIONAL TOURISM IN HARGHITA COUNTY ...........................................................................313 MARCINIAK Robert........................................................................................325 ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND OPERATION SCOPE IN COMPANY OF USING SHARED SERVICE MODEL.........................................................325 OLTEANU Laura, FOSZTÓ Mónika ...............................................................333 THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOURISM AND NATURE – AS BASE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN ROMANIA .....................333 SZABÓ Tünde ..................................................................................................341

PARTICULARITIES OF THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THROUGH HUMAN RESOURCES AND THEIR ROLE ON SYSTEM PROCESSES.................................................................................................341 SZŐCS Attila, CSATA Andrea, F. KIRÁLY Gergely .....................................350 CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE STRUCTURAL EFFECT OF BRAND EQUITY ON BRAND VALUE ...................................................................350 MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, INFORMATICS ............................................362 BROTEA Ladislau ............................................................................................362 STUDY ON THE EFFICIENCY OF DATA MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN ORGANIZATIONS.................................362 ÉLTHES Zoltán ................................................................................................371 SECURE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM...................................................371 KOLLÁR Judit..................................................................................................379 INVESTIGATING MATHEMATICAL PROLEGOMENA OF STUDENTS ENTERING HIGHER EDUCATION IN ECONOMY TITLE OF THE PAPER/POSTER ..........................................................................................379

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ECONOMICS BALLA Emese CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE VARIATION OF CROP YIELDS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF ROMANIA Abstract. Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors that may be affected by the climate change. Due mainly to the topographic diversity, the structure of the Romanian agriculture is characterized by significant territorial differences. Therefore, climate change effects also vary from one region to the other, and these are not necessarily negative, in some areas there may appear even positive effects. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of climate change on crop production in Romania. We chose seven counties from different parts of the country: Arad, Călăraşi, Cluj, Dolj, Galaţi, Harghita and Iaşi. We correlated yields of the most important crops from the above mentioned counties with climate factors, using data from the past thirty years. Analyses seek to identify the climate factors which have a significant impact on the yields variation of the selected crops, highlighting the regional differences.

Keywords: impact of climate change, agriculture, crop production, Romania. JEL codes: Q54, Q15, Q16 1. INTRODUCTION Research on climate change, on its effects, as well as on adaptation options attracted attention only in the past decades, but since then a lot of investigations have appeared in this field. According to the report of the IPCC1, 11 years from the period between 1995 – 2006 is one of the warmest 12 years since 1850. The linear trend of the global warming (0.13 °C per decade) in the period 1956 – 2005 is almost double than in the period between 1906 – 2005 (IPCC 2007, pp. 30). According to the forecasts, global surface temperature may increase by even 4 ºC2 until the end of this century, and “it is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will become more frequent.” (IPCC 2007, pp. 46) 1

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Representing the best estimate in the case of the A1F1 scenario, for the likely range: 2.4 – 6.4 ºC (IPCC 2007, pp. 45).

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Climate change forecasts predict significant risks in many economic sectors by the end of this century. One of the most vulnerable sectors seems to be the agriculture, and particularly the crop production, which is directly affected by the variation of temperature, precipitation and other climatic factors, or by the frequency of extreme climatic events as floods, droughts, storms, and so on. Impact of climate change on crop production was investigated and forecasted by many researchers and research projects for many crops and many locations. There can be found results in this field for Romania too, out of which we mention as examples the following ones: the European Commission’s Green Paper on adaptation to climate change (EC, 2007) containing estimations for Romania too, the report of the Ministry of Environment and Water Management3 from Romania (MEWM, 2005), researches made by Cuculeanu et al. (1999), respectively Cuculeanu et al. (2002), international projects CECILIA4 and CLAVIER5 and others. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of climate change on crop production in different parts of Romania, highlighting the regional differences. Due mainly to the topographical diversity structure of the agricultural area and cultivated land, as well as the variation of crop yields show significant territorial differences. In order to depict these differences we chose seven counties from seven development regions of Romania: Arad from the West Region, Călăraşi from the South Muntenia Region, Cluj from the North-West Region, Dolj from the South-West Oltenia Region, Galaţi from the South-East Region, Harghita from the Center Region and Iaşi from the North-East Region. According to the climatic map of Romania published by the National Environmental Protection Agency (ANPM 2013, pp. 6) Arad, Dolj and Galaţi lie on territories which are characterized by plain - and in a small part hill-plateau - climate, Călăraşi by plain climate, Iaşi and Cluj – mainly - by hill-plateau climate, Harghita by mountain climate. In the first part the changes in the structure of the agricultural area and cultivated land, and variation of the yields of the most important crops in the last 30 years, in the above mentioned counties are analyzed. In the following part the correlation of yield data with climate factors is presented, and last part of the study contains some conclusions. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF ROMANIA

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Current name of the institution: Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Central and Eastern European Climate Change Impact and Vulnerability Assessment, FP6, 20062009. 5 Climate Change and Variability: Impact on Central and Eastern Europe, FP6, 2006-2009. 4

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Structure of the agricultural area

The structure of the agricultural area – due mainly to the relief - shows significant differences in the analyzed counties (Figure 1). The size of arable land is the largest in Dolj county, and the smallest in Harghita county, where the highest part of the territory is covered by mountain depressions. In turn, share of meadows and pastures is much higher here than in the other counties analyzed, however in Cluj county also a relatively high share of the agricultural area belongs to these categories. From 1980 to 2012 very significant changes in the structure of the agricultural area can not be noticed. As a general observation, it can be stated that except Călăraşi county, the size of arable land had slightly decreased in all of the counties.

Figure 1: Structure of the agricultural area Source: own calculation based on NIS (1981) and NIS: Tempo Online Time Series database

Structure of the cultivated area

The size and structure of the cultivated areas also differ significantly in the chosen counties. The size of the cultivated area is much more extended in the Southern part of the country, in Dolj and Călăraşi counties than in the Transylvanian counties as in Harghita or Cluj. Except Harghita country, where the share of the potato and green fodder is the highest in the cultivated area, in the other counties share of the maize and wheat and rye ranks at the first place. Other important crops and their share in the cultivated area are shown in the Figure 2. In the last 30 years the following changes in the cultivated area can be observed. First of all, the size of the cultivated area significantly decreased in the analyzed counties (excepting Călăraşi). Regarding the structure of the cultivated area a lot of changes can be observed, for example the size of the wheat lands decreased in the Transylvanian counties and it increased in the Southern counties, the share of the

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sunflower lands increased in all counties, and similarly, the share of the land cultivated with green fodder also increased, excepting Galaţi county.

Figure 2: Structure of the cultivated area Source: own calculation based on NIS (1981) and NIS: Tempo Online Time Series database

Variation of crop yields

The variation of the crop yields of the past 30 years6 are shown in Figure 3, and Table 1 contains the average and variation coefficients calculated for the yields of the most important crops. Wheat and rye yields can be characterized by increasing tendency in the Transylvanian counties and in Iaşi, and by decreasing tendency in the other counties. In the case of barley, only in Harghita county positive trend appears. In the case of the maize also the Transylvanian counties are characterized by an increasing tendency. Sunflower yields also show a decrease in the Southern counties, and the situation is the same in the case of the sugar beet too, however this crop is not typical in these counties. In turn, sugar beet yields are positive in the other five counties. Potato yields show a decreasing trend exactly in that county, where its share in crop production is the most important, namely in Harghita county. Among the vegetables generally cabbage has the biggest importance in the chosen counties, but an increasing yield trend appears again in the case of Harghita and Cluj counties, and in Galaţi county too. Lucerne yields are decreasing in all seven counties. Thus, as Figure 3 shows, in general decreasing yield trends appear in the southern counties (Călăraşi, Dolj and Galaţi) - which are among the main crop producers of the country - and positive trends in Harghita and Cluj counties, however in Harghita county a negative trend appears exactly in the case of that crop which is 6

Excepting Călăraşi county where data were available only since 1980, and for the lucerne we had data only since 1989 from all of the counties. For years 1986, 1987, 1988 yield data were not available for any of the crops.

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the most important for the region, the potato. In Arad county yields of the most important crops (wheat and maize), as well as sunflower and sugar beet are characterized by a growing tendency. In Iaşi county considerable negative trends appear in the case of barley, potato, cabbage and lucerne.

Figure 3: Variation of crop yields in the period 1975-20127 Source: own calculation based on NIS (1976 – 1990) and NIS: Tempo Online Time Series database

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Idem.

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Table 1 shows the average and the variation coefficient of the yields. The following important aspects must be highlighted: although in Călăraşi county yield trends show a decrease, the average of wheat, barley, maize and sunflower yields still are the highest here. In turn in Arad, where except barley, the above mentioned crops are characterized by increasing trends, and yield averages are also above the other counties’ average. In Harghita county, where positive yield trends of the cereals are typical, yield averages are still much below the other counties’ average. Yield variation coefficients in the case of cereals are the highest in Dolj county. However potato yields are characterized by negative trends in Harghita and Iaşi counties, the yield averages are still the highest in these counties. Variation coefficient of the potato is the highest also in Iaşi county. Sugar beet yield average is the highest in Cluj county, while cabbage and lucerne yields in Galaţi. Table 1: Average and variation coefficient of crop yields in the period 1975-20128 Arad Călăraşi Cluj Dolj Galaţi Harghita Iaşi AVG (t/ha) 3.0 3.0 2.5 2.6 2.3 2.1 2.4 Wheat VAR_C 19% 32% 22% 33% 29% 24% 28% AVG (t/ha) 3.1 3.3 2.2 2.9 2.5 1.6 2.6 Barley VAR_C 25% 30% 19% 37% 28% 29% 29% AVG (t/ha) 3.7 4.1 3.0 3.2 3.1 2.6 3.0 Maize VAR_C 27% 32% 28% 39% 36% 37% 29% AVG (t/ha) 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.4 n.a. 1.3 Sunflower VAR_C 21% 22% 36% 34% 25% n.a. 23% AVG (t/ha) 26.7 n.a. 27.5 n.a. 21.7 23.8 23.8 Sugar beet VAR_C 39% n.a. 30% n.a. 32% 29% 30% AVG (t/ha) 13.5 9.5 13.7 9.2 12.0 15.0 14.1 Potato VAR_C 29% 29% 26% 24% 30% 29% 35% AVG (t/ha) 22.9 17.9 22.1 18.7 24.5 18.1 23.4 Cabbage VAR_C 33% 46% 23% 25% 25% 19% 29% AVG (t/ha) 18.1 20.3 18.7 17.4 21.3 14.7 18.6 Lucerne VAR_C 20% 30% 21% 22% 21% 14% 25% Source: own calculation based on NIS (1976 – 1990) and NIS: Tempo Online Time Series database

3. IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON CROP PRODUCTION IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF ROMANIA It is a well known fact that crop production is particularly vulnerable to the variation of meteorological conditions. However the use of agricultural technology such as mechanization, irrigation, new seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and so on help to increase yields and to adapt to the variation of the climate conditions, as the Table 1 has shown yield variations were still relatively high in the last three decades in every county analyzed. 8

Idem.

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Different crops may react differently to the variation of climatic factors: a certain climate parameter may have an even contrary effect on different crops, so climate change effects on the crop production of the selected counties may significantly differ. In order to identify the impact of climate change on crop yields correlation coefficients were calculated between yield data and climate data.9 Time series of these data cover the period 1975-201210 with a gap between 1986-1988, excepting lucerne where the yield data were available only since 1989. Source of climate data is the ECA&D database11, and the following climate data were included in the analysis: - monthly average temperature, spring and summer average temperature12 - monthly precipitation, spring and summer precipitation sums13 - maximum number of consecutive dry days in a month, monthly values14 - number of frost days in a month15, monthly values.16 The limitations of our investigation were provided by the fact that climate data were registered at a certain meteorological station in the case of each county17, while yield data were available at county level. In spite of this, we consider worthy and important to carry out the analyses, because according to our assumptions and experiences, in general changes in the weather are similar in different parts of a county. In a previous analysis carried out for Harghita county, we calculated correlation coefficients between the climate factors and deviation of the crop yields from the yield trends18 (Balla, 2013) and we found out that in this case number of significant 9

We carried out similar analyzes for some counties from the North-West Region: wheat and maize yields have been correlated with monthly temperature and precipitation data (Vincze M. et al. 2007). 10 In the case of Călăraşi county we had data for 1980 – 2012. 11 Citation and information on the ECA&D database can be found in the Acknowledgment section of the paper. 12 Index calculated as the mean of the daily mean temperatures. 13 Index calculated for the precipitation amounts. 14 Index calculated for the maximum no of consecutive dry days (precipitation sum < 1 mm) 15 Index calculated for the number of frost days (minimum temperature < 0 °C) 16 In the case of wheat and rye, barley and two-row barley climate data - excepting frost days from autumn and for September and October from the previous year were also included. 17 Meteorological stations are the followings: Arad from Arad, Călăraşi from Călăraşi, Cluj-Napoca from Cluj, Craiova from Dolj, Galaţi from Galaţi, Miercurea-Ciuc from Harghita and Iaşi from Iaşi. 18 Gyuricza et al. (2011) also calculate correlation coefficients between the climate factors and deviation of the crop yields from the yield trends.

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correlation coefficients is much lower than in that case, when yields absolute values were correlated with climate factors. Thus, in this study correlation coefficients between yield data and climate data were calculated. Significant correlation coefficients are represented in the table from the Appendix. The following main observations can be made: in the case of wheat and rye and maize yields summer mean temperature and temperature mean from the summer months - especially from June and July in the case of wheat, and July- August at maize - have a negative impact on yields in the majority of the counties, excepting Cluj and Harghita counties, where this impact is positive. This may be explained by the lower summer temperatures from the last two counties. In the case of wheat precipitation from the spring months and spring precipitation sum have significant positive impact on yields in all counties, while maximum number of consecutive dry days from the spring months has a negative impact. For maize yields rather summer precipitation sum is important. In the case of barley, generally the temperature increase in May and June has a negative impact, as well as dry day periods in April. In the last 30 years the monthly temperature trends from the period of March and October increased, so if these trends will be the same in the future, we suppose that a further decrease in the cereal yields’ trends may be expected in the majority of the counties, excepting Cluj and Harghita, and maybe in Arad where in the case of the wheat and maize yields rather precipitation sums from spring and especially from May were important, and these climate factors were characterized by positive trends in the past. Regarding the potato, significant negative correlations appear in general in the case of the summer average temperature and the that of the summer months in those counties, where the potato is cultivated in a relatively large area: in Harghita and Iaşi. Precipitation from June is also important for this crop. In the last 30 years trends of the summer months’ mean temperature were positive, while in June the precipitation trend was negative in these two counties, so if these trends will remain the same, we suppose again that potato yields may be lower in the future in this regions. In the case of the sunflower yields in Călăraşi, Dolj and Galaţi counties significant negative correlations with summer and spring temperatures appear. Contrary to this, in Arad correlations with temperature averages are positive. Sugar beet now is cultivated on a relatively small area, however the increase of temperatures of the summer months and the increase of spring rainfalls in Cluj and Harghita would have a positive impact on the yields.

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At the lucerne, in general, in the selected counties negative significant correlations appear in the case of the spring and summer monthly mean temperatures, and in the case of the consecutive dry day periods from May, June or August. At the same time, positive correlations appear with summer and spring precipitations (excepting Călăraşi county). In the case of the cabbage temperature increase from summer months has positive impact in Cluj, Harghita and Galaţi counties, while in the other counties this impact is negative. Looking back at Figure 3, we consider that probably these positive correlations explain the positive cabbage trends in the above mentioned three counties. 4. CONCLUSIONS The structure of the agricultural area and cultivated area showed/shows significant regional differences, and the variation of the yields in the past three decades was also very different in the seven counties located in seven regions of the country. As the relative big number of the significant correlation coefficients proved, the variation of the most important crop yields is highly influenced by the change of the climatic factors. Thus, climate change may have a considerable impact on crop production in the future too, however the effects may be not necessarily negative in all of the regions, in some cases may appear even positive effects. It is a matter of concern that in most of the cases yields of those crops show decrease which are the most important in the respective region: the cereal grains in the Southern regions (Dolj, Călăraşi and Galaţi), potato and green fodder in Hargita county. In Cluj county, in turn, excepting barley and lucerne positive trends are typical. However Arad and Iaşi are located in a relatively big distance from each other, some similarities between their crop yields trends can be observed: barley, potato, cabbage and lucerne yields show a decrease, while the other crop yields’ trends are generally positive. If the climate factors’ trend observed in the last three decades will remain the same in the future, we suppose that yield trends will also be similar in the chosen counties. In the structure of the agricultural land use or cultivated area in the last three decades large changes cannot be observed. In turn, relative size of the cultivated area significantly decreased everywhere, and mostly in the Transylvanian counties. In our view, urgent solutions of both problems, the adaptation to climate change and increasing the cultivated area, should be found both in public and private sector. Among the solutions we consider particularly important to increase the size 9

of the farms in order to be able to use more adequate agricultural technology, and to promote knowledge transfer through networking and creating farmers' associations. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We acknowledge the data providers in the ECA&D project. Klein Tank, A.M.G. and Coauthors, 2002. Daily dataset of 20th-century surface air temperature and precipitation series for the European Climate Assessment. Int. J. of Climatol., 22, 1441-1453. Data and metadata available at http://www.ecad.eu.

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REFERENCES 1. BALLA E. (2013) - A klímaváltozás hatása a székelyföldi növénytermesztésre. Presentation at Regional competitiveness: governance, knowledge, changes - international conference, 25-26. October 2013 - Miercurea Ciuc. 2. CUCULEANU, V. , TUINEA, P., BĂLTEANU, D. (2002) - Climate change impacts in Romania: Vulnerability and adaptation options. GeoJournal, Vol. 57, Issue 3, pp. 203– 209. 3. CUCULEANU, V., MARICA, A., SIMOTA, C. (1999) - Climate change impact on agricultural crops and adaptation options in Romania. Climate Research, Vol.12, pp. 153-160. http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/12_2/c012p153.pdf (last access on: 22.10. 2013) 4. EC (2007) - Commission Staff Working Document Accompanying the Green Paper from the EC to the Council, the EU Parliament, the EESC and the CoR, Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action {COM(2007)354 final}. Brussels, 29.6.2007, SEC(2007)849. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/docs_autres_institutions/commission_europeenne /sec/2007/0849/COM_SEC%282007%290849_EN.pdf (last access on: 22. 10. 2013) 5. GYURICZA, Cs., TARNAWA, Á., BALLA I. (2011) - Klimatikus tényezők hatása a növényi produktum mennyiségére és a termésstabilitásra [online]. Conference presentation, Meteorológiai Tudományos Napok, „Az agrometeorológia kihívásai és helyzete Magyarországon”, 2011. november 24-25., Budapest, http://mta.hu/data/cikk/12/71/67/cikk_127167/15_metnap.pdf (last access on: 11.7.2013) 6. INS (1976 – 1990) - Anuarul Statistic al României. 7. INS, Tempo Online Time Series [online database], (last https://statistici.insse.ro/shop/index.jsp?page=tempo3&lang=ro&ind=AGR101A access on: 6.2. 2014) 8. IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007, Synthesis Report. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf (last access on: 22.10. 2013) 9. KLEIN TANK, A.M.G. and Coauthors (2002) - Daily dataset of 20th-century surface air temperature and precipitation series for the European Climate Assessment. Int. J. of Climatol., 22, pp. 1441-1453. Data available at: http://www.ecad.eu, http://eca.knmi.nl (last access on: 12. 2. 2014) 10. Ministerul Mediului şi Schimbărilor Climatice, Agenţia Naţională pentru Protecţia Mediului - ANPM (2013): Raport Anual Privind Starea Mediului în România – Anul 2012, http://www.anpm.ro/upload/116008_RSM-2012.pdf (last access on: 18.2.2014) 11. Ministry of Environment and Water Management - MEWM (2005) - Romania’s Third National Communication on Climate Change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Bucureşti, Februarie 2005, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/romnc3.pdf (last access on: 18.2. 2014) 12. VINCZE, M., PETE, I., SZŐCS, E., BÍRÓ, B. (2007) - The main factors influencing Romanian crop production. In. Kerekes, K. (Ed.) Regional and Rural Economics. The Proceedings of the International Conference Competitiveness and European Integration, Cluj-Napoca, 26-27. October 2007, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Alma Mater, pp. 268-277.

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APPENDIX Significant correlations between yield data and climate data A R

Wheat and rye

+P_Sp, -P_Aut, +P5, -P_10* -DD4, FD3*, -FD4*

-T_Su*, -T5**, -T6**, -T7, -T10 +T_Su**, +T7**

DJ

-T_Su**, -T_Au, -T5**, -T6**, -T7**, -T10*

+P_Sp*, +P6**

G L H R

-T_Sp*, -T_Su*, -T4*, -T5**, -T6*, T7*, -T10*

+P_Sp*, +P_Aut, +P4*

-DD4*, DD5*, -DD6* -DD4*,DD5*, -DD9,-DD10

+T_Su, +T_Aut, +T7**, +T9

+P_Sp, +P5

-DD5*

IS A R

-T5**, -T6*

+P_Sp, +P4

-T6**

-P10

+P4*

-DD4*, FD3*, -FD4*

C L

-T_Au*, -T5**, -T6**, -T10*

-P6*

CJ

-T5*, -T6

+P4*

DJ

-T_Au, -T5**, -T6** -T_Sp**, -T_Aut*, -T4**, -T5**, T6**, -T9, -T10**

+P6* +P_Sp*, +P4*

+T4

+P3*, -P6

-T5**, -T6**

+P_Sp*, +P4*, +P6*

-DD3* -DD4, FD3*, -FD5*

-T6* -T_Sp**, -T_Su**, -T4*, -T5, -T6**, -T7**, -T8**

+P_Sp*, +P5*

+DD7*

+P7*

-DD8**

+P_Sp*, +P_Su*, +P5, +P6*, +P7

-DD5*, DD6*

+P_Sp**, +P_Su**, +P5*, +P7**, +P8

-DD7**,DD8**

IS A R C L

DJ G L H R

Potato

-T6*

Extreme events

CJ

CJ

Maize

Precipitation

C L

G L H R Barley and two-row barley

Temperature

+T_Su, +T5 -T_Sp*, -T_Su**, -T5*, -T6**, -T7**, -T8* -T_Sp**, -T_Su**, -T4**, -T6*, T7**, -T8* +T_Su**, +T5*, +T7**, +T8**

+P_Su, +P7

IS A R C L

-T_Sp*, -T_Su*, -T6*, -T7*

+P_Su**, +P6**

CJ

-T3, +T5**

-T_Su**, -T6**, -T8

+P3

-DD4, -DD6 -DD4*, DD5, -DD6* -DD4*, DD5*, -DD9*

-DD7*, FD5* +DD4, +DD7**

+DD4

DJ

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G L H R IS A R C L CJ DJ G L H R Sunflower

Sugar beet

Lucerne

Cabbage

IS A R C L

-T_Su**, -T6, -T7**

+P6*

-T_Sp, -T_Su**, -T3*, -T6**, -T7**, T8*

+P_Su**, +P6**

-DD6 -DD6*, DD7*, -FD5*

+T_Su*, +T4, +T7* -T_Su*, -T5*, -T6*, -T7** +T5 -T_Sp, -T_Su**, -T5**, -T6**, -T7**, T8 -T_Sp**, -T_Su**, -T4**, -T5*,-T6*, -T7**, -T8*

+P3 +P6* +P4

-DD5**, DD6 -DD7**,DD8

n.a.

n.a.

n.a. -FD5

+P_Sp*

-FD4*

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

CJ

+T_Sp*, +T_Su**, +T6*, +T7**, +T8

+P_Sp, +P_Su

-FD3

DJ G L H R

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

+T_Su*, +T7*, +T8*

+P_Sp, +P3*

IS A R C L

-T_Su**, -T6**, -T7*, -T8**

+P_Sp, +P_Su**, +P4*, +P6, +P8*

-T_Su, -T5, -T6, -T7, -T8

-P_Sp, -P5*

CJ

-T5*, -T6

+P_Sp*, +P_Su**, +P5, +P6**

DJ G L H R

-T7

+P6

-T_Sp, -T_Su**, -T6**, -T7**, -T8**

+P_Su*, +P8*

IS A R C L

-FD4, -FD5 -DD8*

-DD5*, -DD6

-DD8*

-T5*

+P5*

-DD5, -DD6*

-T_Su**, -T5*, -T6*, -T7*, -T8*

+P_Su*, +P6

-FD5*

-T_Su*, -T6*, -T7*

+DD5

-T3, +T5**

CJ

+T_Su, +T5, +T7*

DJ G L H R

-T_Sp*, -T_Su*, -T3, -T7*, -T8*

IS

-T_Su**, -T6**, -T7*, -T8*

+T_Su*, +T5*, +T8*

-P6

+DD8* -DD6

-P8

+T_Su*, +T7, +T8*

-DD3, +DD8 +P_Su, +P6*

-DD6*

Source: own calculations based on yield data from NIS (1976 – 1990) and NIS: Tempo Online Time Series database, and on climate data from the ECA&D database.

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** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Where no * or ** mark, correlation is significant at the 0.1 level. Sign "+" means that the correlation is positive, sign " -" that the correlation is negative. Abbreviations: AR – Arad, CL – Călăraşi, CJ – Cluj, DJ – Dolj, GL – Galaţi, HR – Harghita, IS – Iaşi, Ti - mean temperature from month i, Pi – precipitation from month i, DD – no. of consecutive dry days from month i, FDi – no. of frost days from month i, Sp – spring, Su – summer, Aut – autumn, n.a. – not available.

CONTACT Balla Emese, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Cluj-Napoca, Department of Juridical Sciences and European Studies, [email protected]

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BÍRÓ Boróka Júlia Modernization of the Romanian Agricultural Holdings through the Implementation of Rural Development Measure 121 Abstract. As a measure belonging the 1st Axis of the Common Agricultural Policy’s second pillar, measure 121 “Modernization of agricultural holdings” seeks to contribute to the improvement of the competitiveness of the agricultural holdings through a better use of human resources and production factors, aiming at restructuring and developing the physical potential and promoting innovation. Present paper proposes to evaluate the application of measure 121 “Modernization of agricultural holdings” of the Romanian National Rural Development Programme, between 2007 and 2013. At the dawn of the European Union’s new programming period, data for the previous seven years’ time horizon is now available. Absorption level of the above measure on national and subnational scale is going to be mapped.

Keywords: Common Agricultural Policy, rural development, measure 121, modernization of agricultural holdings JEL codes: Q18 INTRODUCTION The first, ‘sectoral’ pillar of the two-pillar structured Common Agricultural Policy is the scene of market measures and income policy, while the second, so called ‘territorial’ pillar represents the rural development policy. Rural Development – as second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy appeared highlighted in the AGENDA 2000 document, where separate financial framework was applied to it. In the agricultural policy reforms of the past 20 years, the context of rural territories appeared in a more and more pronounced way. It has gradually been recognized during these years that the problems of rural territories cannot be solved only via supporting the agricultural sector and producers. Similarly it has been recognized that there is a need for special rural development approach (Vincze, 2008). Rural development positively affects the increase of competitiveness of the European agriculture on domestic and foreign markets as well, and this in turn is going to increasingly depend on the promotion of multifunctional agriculture (Zahiu and Dachin, 2006).

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According to the National Rural Development Programme of Romania for the programming period 2007-2013, the following measures were financed via the first axis – i.e. “Improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector” of the rural development pillar: measure 111-Vocational training, information actions and the diffusion of knowledge; measure 112- Setting up of young farmers; measure 113 - Early retirement of farmers and agriculture workers; measure 114 Using advisory and consultancy services; measure 121 - Modernization of agricultural holdings; measure 122 - Improving the economic value of forests; measure 123 - Adding value to agricultural and forestry products; measure 125 Improving and developing infrastructure related to the development and adaptation of agriculture and forestry; measure 141 - Supporting semi-subsistence agricultural holdings; measure 142 - Setting up of producer groups; measure 143 - Providing farm advisory and extension services. Present study proposes to analyse the territorial distribution of the supports granted via measure 121 - Modernization of agricultural holdings, on 2007-2013 time horizon, – trying to identify the absorption capacity, as well as the performance of the Romanian NUTS3 level units (counties). MEASURE 121 - MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS Under this this measure supports are granted for tangible and intangible investments covering the following eligible categories (Guidelines for applicants for Measure 121, p. 10-11.): -

Construction and/or modernization of buildings used for the agricultural production at farm level, including those used for the environment protection; Construction and/or modernization of agricultural internal or access road infrastructure, including utilities and couplings, identified as necessary in the feasibility study or justification report; Construction and/or modernization of dairy cow farms which fit with the European Milk Quota System only for the capacity which is at the level of the production quota held by the beneficiary; Construction and/or modernization of greenhouses, including heating systems and irrigation installations, ensuring utilities for complying with environment conditions; Purchase or lease purchase of new tractors, harvesting machines, machinery, installations, equipments and accessories, specialized equipments and software identified as necessary in the feasibility study or justification report;

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-

-

-

-

Purchase or lease purchase of new specialized transport vehicles needed for production activities identified as necessary in the feasibility study or justification report; Replacement of noble species of vineyards at the end of their production biological cycle (at least 25 years old) and which are not included in the restructuring/reconversion system of vineyards, supported through EAGF, within CMO Wine and setting-up of vineyards of grapes for consumption; Setting up plantation of fruit bearing trees, fruit bearing bushes and strawberries; Setting up vineyards nurseries, fruit bearing tree and bushes nurseries, other trees; Investments for a sustainable production and use of energy from renewable sources within the farm; Investments for setting-up of forestry species with a short rotation coppice and regeneration through vegetative way, in order to produce renewable energy; Investments in beekeeping, excepting those made through the National Beekeeping Programme; Investments for the processing of agricultural products at farm level (only and if at least 50% of the raw materials are produced in their own farm, and the processing output remains a product listed in Annex I to the Treaty Establishing the EU, while farming should be and remain the major activity of the holding), including equipment for selling the products including storage and refrigerating etc.; General costs of the project according to Art. 55 from (EC) Regulation no. 1974/2006, such as: fees of architects, engineers and consultants, feasibility studies, taxes for certification, permits and approvals necessary for implementing the projects, as mentioned in the national legislation, acquisition of patent rights and licences (max. 8% of the eligible value of investments, if the project foresees constructions and max. 3% of the eligible value of investments, if the project does not foresee constructions); Investments necessary for the holding’s adaptation to organic farming; Investments necessary for complying with Community standards. Costs occurring before the project approval are considered non-eligible within measure 121, except for technical studies, business plans and feasibility studies that are considered eligible (NRDP);

ABSORPTION OF MEASURE 121 FUNDS ON COUNTY LEVEL The total public value of non-reimbursable funds granted through measure 121 of the Romanian National Rural Development Programme, between 2007 and 2013 amounts 754,101,385 euro. This country total value was accessed via projects in 17

1992. Consequently, the average value of one M121 project is 378,565 euro. Figure 1. represents the aggregated values of projects financed through M121 on county level. Darker colours mean that the respective county had an above-average absorption capacity, while lighter colours suggest under-average county performance. Best performing county, taking the value of M121 projects entered, is Timis, with a total value of 43,780,047 euro. Worst performer from this respect is Gorj county with a value of 1,297,510 euro.

Figure 1: Value of projects financed via measure 121 between 2007 and 2013, in Romania, on county level (euro) Source: own edition usig ArcGIS 10.1, APDRP Database Besides the total value of European Funds entered through measure 121 to Romania in the period 2007-2013 (Figure 1), it is also highly important to explore the number of projects that claimed for these amounts (Figure 2). From this perspective, best performer is Tulcea County with a total number of 142 M121 type projects, and worst performer is Gorj County with a very low amount: only 8 projects.

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Figure 2: Number of projects financed via measure 121 between 2007 and2013, in Romania, on county level (number) Source: own edition usig ArcGIS 10.1, APDRP Database Taking the average values of M121 projects on county level (by dividing total county M121 values by number of M121 projects), best performer is Bra ov County (711,022 euro/project), while worst performer remains Gorj County with an average M121 project value of only 162,189 euro/project. THE EVOLUTION OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN ROMANIA. DETECTING EU POST-ACCESSION CAP IMPACTS. A local hero in terms of EU CAP funds accession from Ialomi a County, Vasile Berbecel: owner of the Ceres Smirna company, stated the followings (Razi, G: 2012): “I took two harvesters, two tractors, sowers and installed an irrigation system in recent years. Total amount of investments reached 1.5 million euro, projects being made on European money. I also own some small tractors I also had before 2007, but I took them out from the main production circuit because they are not efficient enough as they consume two times more than the new ones. During this period, I was able to increase productivity by increasing the per hectare investment. I did this by using fertilisers and irrigation”. This example can be considered an actual impact formulated by an agricultural company owner who leads its activity on 2600 hectares in Ialomi a County. This is a relevant example, but several other investments had been made all over the country by local farmers, as data from the National Institute of Statistics show ex-post EU-accession pluses regarding agricultural machinery, irrigation systems installed, irrigated area and the use of fertilizers. The evolution of the Romanian agricultural machinery park on a

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twelve-year time horizon (six years pre-accession and six years post accession period) is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Evolution of the Romanian agricultural machinery park between 2001 and 2012 (pieces) Source: adapted from Razi, 2012, updated using NIS data As compared to the year 2007, the Romanian agricultural machinery park extended with 10443 tractors (6% increase), 7689 ploughs for tractors (5.50% increase), 5845 mechanical sowers (8.64% increase) and 970 self-propelled combines for cereal harvesting (3.93% increase). On the other hand, official statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also show that current agricultural machinery fleet continues to be obsolete, as 50% of tractors registered had been produced before 1989. Consequently there is a large room and need for the acquisition of new machinery, which is possible to make both from pillar 1 direct payments or by accessing several measures of the rural development pillar that support and target machinery fleet renewal (one of these is Measure 121). The post 2007 renewal and gradual expansion of the agricultural machinery park via the acquisition of new machinery, did not serve local industry as significant part of agricultural machinery had been imported to and not produced in Romania. According to the list and evolution of import values of goods according to the Combined Nomenclature, those referring to agricultural machinery show significant increase (Figure 4) after 2007. Regarding the post-accession period, year after year was more and more being spent on agricultural, horticultural or forestry machinery for soil preparation or cultivation and harvesting and threshing machinery.

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Figure 4: The evolution of agriculture-related machinery import values in thou euros between 2001-2012 Source: own edition based on NIS data CONCLUSION Besides the mapping of total values, total numbers and average values of M121 projects financed on county level in Romania between 2007 and 2013, we also consider highly important to build several compound indicators in order to get a more realistic view on the performance status of the counties. We calculated three types of indicators regarding M121 values: total M121 project value per rural inhabitants, total M121 project value per those employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing sector and total M121 project value per 1 ha of agricultural area - all of the above on county level. Results show that, on the one hand, in the best performing counties 317 euro per rural inhabitant (Timi ), 1299 euro per an employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (Bra ov), and 151 euro per one hectare of agricultural area entered through M121 on a 2007-2013 time horizon. On the other hand, worst performing counties show very low aboveaverage values: 7 euro per rural inhabitant (Gorj), 30 euro per one person employed in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (Vâlcea) and 5 euro per one hectare of agricultural area. We can conclude that mainly rural, less developed counties – those more in need of - are less effective in rural development designated European Funds’ absorption.

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REFERENCES 1. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS database: www.insse.ro (accessed on 01.01.2014) 2. NATIONAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME http://www.madr.ro/pages/dezvoltare_rurala/pndr-v.8-22martie-2012.pdf , official version of the National Rural Development Programme of Romania, published in March 2012, (accessed on 06.01.2014) 3. RAZI, G. (2012): Cum s-a schimbat agricultura României după cinci ani de fonduri Europene, 13.08.2012, Ziarul Financiar http://www.zf.ro/companii/cum-s-a-schimbat-agricultura-dupa-cinci-ani-defonduri-europene-silozuri-de-2-5-milioane-de-tone-de-cereale-9-000-detractoare-si-25-mai-multe-ingrasaminte-9944671 , (accessed on 14.08.2013) 4. VINCZE, M. (2008): Európa gazdaságtana. Az európai gazdasági integráció elméleti és gyakorlati kérdései, Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca 5. ZAHIU, L. and ANCA, D. (2006): Politica Agricolă Comună în perioada 20072013, Chapter V. in Zahiu, L. (coord.), Dachin, A., Ion, R., Istudor, N., Manole, V., Popescu, A., Poenaru, .: Agricultura Uniunii Europene sub impactul Politicii Agricole Comune, Bucure ti, Editura CERES, 2006, p. 134159.

CONTACT Boróka-Júlia Bíró, Babe -Bolyai University, [email protected]

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BOTOS Attila POSSIBILITIES FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN COVASNA COUNTY Abstract. The regional policies of Romania are characterised by two systems of connection: on the one hand, the integral inclusion of the countries into the European space in order to create a harmony between the regional policies of the European Union and the ideas for the development of Eastern and Central Europe, on the other hand, the general development of a given country and of certain regions. The programmes of development concerning the region have in view the change of the basic conditions, which can be carried out on the long term. They ensure the development of the institutions, of the conditions, of the people; therefore, they do not only offer assistance. Development in itself always means strategic activity. Regional development refers to important investments on the regional level, improvements in the infrastructure inside the area. In the case of regional development critical importance is given to ecological, technical, economic and geographical reasons.

Keywords: regional, development, county, possibilities THE AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

The most important aims of the paper are the following: The outlining of the standpoints referring to regional science, as well as the multiple approaches of the fundamental conception of the scientific views, of the region requires the thorough knowledge of the specialized literature referring to these issues. A region is defined differently by every branch of science, on every international forum and by every scientist; therefore I wish to give a general picture of the doctrines of different schools, as well as of the area of Covasna County, as region. Nowadays, the European Union supports many regions from Central and Eastern Europe, respectively a lot of regional collaborations. My aim is the presentation and analysis of the possibilities for regional development of my homeland, Covasna County. Finally, I try to propose achievable alternatives for promoting the continuous development of the county through the conscious concentration of the resources and efforts. 23

I made an effort to propose a strategy structure which would respect the norms of the European Union and EUROSTAT as well, which could be included in the regional development plan no.7 of Romania, namely the Central Region, the future region of Seklerland, as well as the National Development Plan of Romania, and which could be compared to the ones mentioned above and to the strategies of the neighbouring counties. As a conclusion, I have drawn further suggestions which have a stimulating effect on the economic relations based on geographic structures respecting the conditions of the European Union. Comparisons play a great role in regional sciences, therefore, besides showing their common features originating from the spatiality of the social processes they point at their different characteristics in different social spheres. Contrary to other sciences studying spatiality, it is not only the central role of the area, of speciality that can be mentioned, but one can also say that its object is one and the same with the one of social space. At the same time, “the concept of space is inseparable from the concept of inequality” (ENYEDI, 1996), which also shows the importance of the comparison. They are considered to be sciences where models play a central role, where the models reveal the special functioning of the society, respectively the characteristics of certain regions. Sociology, anthropology emphasize the ethnical, cultural, spiritual, mental togetherness, political science looks for the role of the regions in the process of separation of power. The birth of the institutional function of governing is an important moment in the view of the law, of the science of administration: the concept of region was defined in the following way by the Local and Regional Permanent Conference of Self-Government of the European Council: “The region is an administrational unit which is situated right under the level of central administration, it has an independent political responsibility, having chosen this political independence through a corporate body, or, in its absence, it is governed by a body made up of delegated members or by an organization belonging to the regional administration level directly subordinated to it.” (BALAZS, 1993). The notion of region is wider with a richer content. Whereas the science of justice looks for the role of the regions within the framework of the institutional function of governing and political science tries to find it in the separation of power, geography emphasizes the economic and social complexity, sociology and anthropology points out the ethnic and cultural togetherness. The concept of area cannot be identified with the concept of region, as an area becomes a region when “the presence of the duality of two processes, namely that 24

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of the regionalisation appearing in the social and economic organization, respectively the one appearing in mental and cultural spheres as well as in the organizational, institutional, political spheres can be proved, inside a certain region.” (NEMES-NAGY, 1997). According to the 1st paragraph of the Charta of Regional Community, the region: 1.From the geographical point of view, it forms a clear unit, or it is the homogeneous complex of such areas, which form a closed structure, the inhabitants of which are characterised by certain common elements, wishing to preserve the characteristics deriving from these, in order to promote the cultural, social and economic development. 2.The “common elements” possessed by the inhabitants are the common features regarding language, culture, historical traditions, economy and transportation. 3.It is possibly due to the different names given to these units in different states, to their legal and political situation that they are not excluded from the present Charta. The separation of power between the regions and the state is a decisive criterion. Regionalism and political decentralisation mutually depend on each other. In administration the counties enfeebled by the change of regime prove to be weak from the point of view of regional development, nevertheless, the lack of decision making is a problem for the regions. Decentralisation causes problems both from the point of view of the Hungarian countries and from the one of the regions. I think that the social and economic changes taking place in Eastern Europe have given birth to new regional processes. The Eastern region which had been declared to be a unified one was separated into independent units all of a sudden and the reorganization of which will probably be determined by totally different relations of interest than before. Regarding Hungary, one has to mention two most important processes of the restructuring which determine both the organization of the territories on the national level and its position: the passing on to market economy and the creation of the democratic system of institutions. The place of the centralized system of planning is taken over by market economy, which is carried out by the restructuring of the economic system, the privatization of companies and the liquidation of unprofitable production units. In this process, the respect of civic rights, the new property law, the new property relations and those of interest make the organization of territories face new challenges. It also refers to regional and agricultural independence; therefore, new instruments will appear in the process of planning and carrying out of territory organization. By joining the processes of European integration, in the process of territory organization one is expected to become acquainted with the European 25

systems of planning, to adapt their experiences to the Hungarian conditions, to develop the infrastructure of communication which ensure a territorial and informational unity, and further on the economic and territorial innovation. (ENYEDI, 1996). The conditions given by market economy the state can contribute to the exploiting of the characteristics of certain areas through its direct and indirect interventions. The social and economic restructuring taking place in the country is a long term process the effect of which is regional structure forming, influences territorial inequalities (ENYEDI, HORVATH, 2002). The territorial division of the country outlined above is mirrored in one of the most serious social problems, in the territorial variations of unemployment. Unemployment – due to the reasons mentioned above – appears in a much lower proportion in Eastern Transdanubia and in the wider surroundings of the capital, but it exceeds the average percentage in the north-eastern part of the country. The characteristics of regionalism in Romania The concept of Romanian regional development was defined in 1997 (Carte Verde) without determining the regions as the basic unities of regional development. In Romania, the basic aim of regional development is “the urging of interregional, national, international and cross-border collaborations, as well as the creation of euro regions, respectively the co-operation of the development regions in the division of labour on the territory of Europe, the spreading of institutions promoting projects based on bilateral or multilateral relations according to the international agreements signed by the country”. The fundamental unit of regional policy is the development region, which according to the Romanian law, lies on the following determining principles of regions, in my opinion: -

the tendency of revealing the problems of the regions, the creation of target areas of programmes of different types, the training of specialists in regional development, the collaboration of the inhabitants inside the region. On the basis of the standpoint of the Romanian expert public opinion the cooperation between the actors of regional development is much more important at the beginning of the whole process than the exact determination of the regions. The division of a country in regions can be carried out based on administrative or developmental points of view. The aim of the implementation of and administrative structure with one or multiple levels is the creation of a democratic governing and of a more efficient relationship by taking into consideration the 26

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different phenomena of national life style. The administrative division is a historic process with no alternatives, which forms the administrative subunit of the country. The administrative division can be carried out in such a situation (many times through the multiplication of the administrative units) which makes possible a development based on the saving of expenses, as the former situation is less efficient. In Romania, the administrative unit is continually made up of the historic counties – the frontiers of which were changed after the signing of the peace-treaty of 1920 – (DUTKO, 2000, KEREKES – MEZEI, 2000). The disadvantage of this form of organization is that there are many counties (42, among which Bucharest appears too, besides being listed as capital). The demands for regional development require the existence of separate levels of development, beyond the ones based on the administrative units. Therefore, the 42 counties, which are too small, cannot be offered efficient support through the sources of the Union. (ADR: Planul de dezvoltare al Regiunii 7 “Centru” – The Development Plan of the Region 7 “Centre”). Having analysed the efforts made by Romania for regional development, I definitely consider the disadvantage of macro-regional division being efficient only if the administrative regions (counties), on the basis of which the development regions were created, are willing to collaborate voluntarily. This co-operation cannot be the result of a compelling decision from the part of the government, but it can be helped if the investment programmes, useful in the case of macro-regions, are exploited efficiently, which greatly depend on the willingness of the counties for collaboration. The definition of development regions is based on three characteristics (Ministerul Dezoltarii si Prognozei, 1998 – The Ministry of Development and Prognosis, 1998): 1. The determination of counties with similar social and economic profile (15 groups of counties), 2. The concentration into development regions of counties with similar relations of functioning, communicational or human infrastructure (8 development regions), 3. The indication of areas (which can be specially developed) inside development regions confronting with special problems (agricultural, industrial, environmental) concerning development. The first viewpoint is the concentration of towns, respectively of villages with similar problems. The variety of regional problems requires varied regional policies (table 1). Development regions are the best frame for the reduction of

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inequalities between more and less developed areas making possible the analysis and use of regional development policies. (ENYEDI, 1996) The specially developed regions make possible the organization of programmes regarding industry, agriculture, unemployment and environmental pollution by county and local self-governments, besides the national government. These above mentioned regions are appropriate, as subunits of development regions, for reducing regional inequalities. The great majority of these areas are at a disadvantage, being territories characterised by an often obsolete, low-qualified level of urbanisation, specific activities and developmental abnormalities. In my opinion the greatest problems are the low wages in traditional industry and agriculture, the aged population, the low level of qualification, respectively the highly underdeveloped infrastructure. The regions which can be specially developed belong to a mobile category of regional development inside the development regions because the aim of regional policy is the lining up of these territories with the middle-developed, respectively the developed regions during a shorter or longer period of time, thanks to the different degrees of development of the former. The level of development regions is the same as the one of statistic regions. Data referring to statistic regions are very useful in revealing the differences between regions. The marking of regions on the basis of statistic data is lays the grounds for regional programmes. (GEORGES, 1997) During its historic evolution Romania has encountered many problems which stimulated rather the social and economic regional development than centralization. From this point of view, one can stress the importance of three basic aims (Ministry of Development and Prognosis, 1998): 1. The creation of legal harmonization with the norms of the European Union, 2. The lessening of developmental differences between regions, 3. The integration of departmental activities inside the regions for the attainment of a higher degree of development. The common duty of the countries before joining the EU is the creation of a path for economic growth, the enforcement of the directives of the Union and the easing of developmental differences of areas. My opinion is that the points of view mentioned above represent a general guideline for regional policy in Romania, which is of a major importance in the preparation for the reception of the resources, of the funds of the Union, namely of the Structural and Cohesion Funds by the country, after joining (GEORGESCU, 1999).

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Historic development is accompanied by a social, economic and cultural variety based on different natural and human resources. The direct consequence of this assertion is that agriculture is present in those regions where the natural conditions are adequate (soil, climate, configuration of the terrain, etc.) as an economic potential, heavy industry is present in areas with mineral resources (coal, iron ore, etc.), service sectors are concentrated in administrative centres. The regions situated along the frontiers of the country benefit by the advantages and opportunities offered by cross-border communication and services (Arad, Temes, Bihar). The workforce market may influence both the deepening and the easing of these developmental differences. The large industrial centres and cities with service industries are often much more developed than the peripheral agricultural areas with traditional, underdeveloped infrastructure. The aim of regional economic development is the easing of these traditional differences, therefore, the restoring of regional equilibrium. After 1989, regional policy was not defined in Romania even though it would have been also important to take into consideration the macro-regional and departmental political instruments from the regional point of view. (RAMBOLL, 1999) Having analyzed the Romanian legislation, I would like to emphasize the positive characteristic of the elaboration of specific programmes for disadvantaged regions (Western Carpathians, Delta-Danube, Giurgiu, Botosani, Vaslui). However, these measures did not serve the long-term economic lining up, they had an ad hoc character, whereas regional development across the country was given a rather unimportant role. I think it is a basic requirement of our days that the lessening of regional developmental differences and the prevention of its ulterior aggravation should be one of the foundation-stones of the country’s regional policy. By the change of regime Romania found itself confronted to a situation which compelled it to choose an applicable reform type. The possibility of a shocktherapy was also mentioned (KOSA, - MARTIN, 2001) which was put into practice in Poland and Czechoslovakia, or the one of slow, gradual changes, following the example of Hungary and Slovakia. It was decided to bring into operation the latter that is the adoption of the model of gradual changes (VOGEL, 1998). After the elections of November 1996, two international organs recommended during the negotiations with the World Bank and the National Currency Fund (IMF) the use of the shock-therapy in order to fight the economic crisis. Knowing and continually following the economic state of Romania, I can state that Romania is on an extraordinarily cumbrous path due to the accepted slow process of restructuring. The great economic recession of 1990 was partly due to the starting of the process of economic stabilisation and change of structure, and partly caused by the narrowing of the export market. The creation of a balanced economic growth – taking into account the crisis signs of Western Europe – demands an extraordinary performance from the country. 29

When talking about regional development in Romania, one can emphasize the regulating role of Law CLI/1998 regarding regional development and the decrees referring to it (Decree no. 634/1998). The national decisional organ in regional development is the National Council for Regional Development (Decree no.979/1998 regarding the appointment of the ministerial representatives of the National Council for Regional Development and the rules of organization and functioning of the National Agency for Regional Development) the president of which is the Prime Minister, its members consist of, besides the government, the representatives of the regions, one for each region. The regional level of decision making consists of the presidents of the counties and of one representative of the Councils for Regional Development, representing other organs of the county. The president and the vice-president of the Council for Regional Development are elected from among the presidents, which automatically become members of the National Council for Regional Development. Every county has a County Council (Law no. 69/1991 regarding local administration) the president of which is chosen from the members of the council. The Council coordinates the social and economic development of the counties and the activities of the local councils. The County Council (respectively, the local councils, in problems which concern the settlements directly – for example if they have contributed to the Fund for Regional Development) has the right to re-examine all the decisions of the Council for Regional Development. On 1st of February 1993 Romania signed the contract of integration with the European Union (SIMON, 2000) which is the first most important milestone in the long-term integration plans of the country. It signed an Agreement with EFTA (European Free Trade Association) and it has become a member of CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Association) since 1st of July 1997. The declaration of Copenhagen indicated the year 2007 as the earliest date of integration of Romania. In terms of this aim, the most important task of the country is the creation of a legal and institutional background for the closing of the chapters still open regarding European integration. (WEBER, 1998) In the creation of the Romanian regional system, one laid the stress on the forming of regions with equal-sized territories and with an equal number of populations, except the region of the capital, which occupies a much smaller territory and has a population equal to the one of the other regions. Therefore, the Romanian regions show important and growing differences. Population is highly concentrated on the borders of the Carpathians and in large industrial centres, in contrast to the under-populated mountainous areas, DanubeDelta and the inundation areas. The great majority of towns are concentrated in the southern part of the country, in the centre of Transylvania and in Moldova. The 30

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composition of the population from the point of view of age-groups is relatively balanced in towns, but the population of the villages is highly aged. On the whole, the price that Romania has to pay for the social and economic signs shown by the transitional market economy are the general negative effects, the price of which are the reduction of the number of births, the growth of mortality, the losses caused by migration, the decrease of the number of people belonging to the active age-group. However, regional development has in view the improvement of the quality of life of rural population, the protection of the environmental, natural, respectively of cultural values and the ensuring of permanent development (VINCZE, 2000). Within the framework of strategies for regional development, the approach concentrated on programmes focuses on choosing a smaller region where these can be carried out most efficiently. At the same time, in the case of an approach concentrated on a small region one elaborates the best strategy for a given small region. Agriculture is the backbone of regional development in most rural areas but this does not mean that regional development only refers to agricultural development. On EU level, agriculture represented 1.6% of the GDP in 1997 and 5% of the total number of employees were working in agriculture. In the 15 member states of the EU the number of farmers amounts to 7.4 million, which shows a diminishing role of the sector of agriculture. These figures show that the future on the region does not depend on agriculture alone. However, in order to keep alive the European rural tradition, contrary to the traditional economic basis, the support of regions has proven to be necessary. One has to improve the live conditions of people living in disadvantaged areas; therefore, it is not enough to only improve the life of those working in the sectors of agriculture. In EU states, the criteria for asking for regional development subsidies are the following:  The index of density of population is under 100 people per sq km, or the number of employees working in agriculture is at least two times higher than the average of the EU.  The unemployment rate is higher than the EU average or the number of the population has decreased in the last ten years. In Romania, the definition of rural areas is comprised in the Green Charta (1998) of Romanian rural development. The rural areas are the 2685 villages of the country which have a regional self-government. I did not analyze the situation of the 346 villages which belong to the self-government of municipalities and towns. In my study I also omitted to analyze the situation of the 67 small towns the population of which is below 10 thousand people, nevertheless, the 33 villages, the population of which exceeds 10 thousand people, do not have a town status, 31

therefore, they are considered to be rural areas. Rural areas have been defined in this manner, based on the following grounds:  The statistic information system is organized on the basis of territorial administrative division and the village level is the lowest about which one could obtain official statistic data.  On the level of territorial autonomy, one has the possibility to create such an institutional system, which could become an active actor in rural development. (KULCSAR, 1999)  One can enforce the approach of regional development from regional point of view. The general characterization of Romanian rural areas was made possible due to an analysis based on a complex system of criteria. In choosing the criteria, the standpoints accepted were the necessary and the possible ones. I considered it to be necessary to use such a methodological frame which could be compatible with the methods used in the EU for the characterisation of rural areas. Presently, the only possibility for analysis is offered by the Romanian statistic system only which does not offer information about the economic and social indexes, which, on regional level, are necessary for making a full comparison with the European countries (GDP / inhabitant, the contribution of certain sectors to GDP, the income level of households, the use of territories not fit for agriculture, the level and structure of unemployment, etc.). BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. BALÁZS, I. (1993): Gondolatok a regionalizációról. Közigazgatási Füzetek, 10. Szám 2. BARTUCZ et al: (2000): Development concept and programme for the HungarianRomanian border region. Terra Studio Kft. 142 p. 3. DUTKÓ, A. (2000): A történelmi megyerendszer átszabása Szlovákiában és Romániában. Comitatus, X (10) 21-25. p. 4. ENYEDI, GY. ( 1996): Regionális folyamatok az átmeneti időszakban, 11-13 p 5. ENYEDI, GY. – HORVÁTH, GY. (2002): A magyar településhálózat átalakulási tendenciái. In: PREISICH, G.: A városépítésről. Kossuth, Budapest, 39-49. pp. 6. GEORGES, T. (1997): A regionális fejlődés útjai: globálistól a lokálisig, Tér és Társadalom 2 sz. 7. GEORGESCU, I. (1999): Reforma economica si dezvoltarea durabila Buc. 6-7 p. 8. KULCSÁR, L. (1999): A SAPARD előcsatlakozási programra felkészítő képzés tananyaga kistérségek számára. SCOLAR kiadó, Bp. 9. KÓSA, B. – MARTIN, I. (2001): Bulgária és Románia a piacgazdaság utján, Pro Minoritate 89-106 p. 10. NEMES-NAGY, J. (1997): Javaslat a hazai nagytérségi térfelosztásra: NyugatKözpont-Kelet. Comitatus, VII (1) 42-47. p. 11. RAMBOLL, (1999): Disparitati Regionale in Romania, Guvernul Romaniei

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12. SIMON, (2000): Az Európai Unió és a Balkán. Külgazdaság, XL (6) 50-72. p. 13. VINCZE, M. (2000): Régió-és vidékfejlesztés. Cluj Napoca: Babeş Bolyai Tudományegyetem, 188 p. 14. VOGEL, (1998): Rendszerváltás Romániában külpolitika 70-75 p 15. WEBER, R. (1998): A román-magyar kapcsolatok alakulása a Schengeni Egyezmény jogi keretein belül. Studii Internaţionale, (4), 33-44. p. 16. Ministerul Dezvoltarii şi Prognozei – www. mdp.ro/romana/dezvoltare/regiuni/index.html 17. Ministerul Dezvoltarii şi Prognozei (1998): Carta Verde, Politica de dezvoltare regională în România. Bucureşti, 88 p.

DABASI_HALÁSZ Zsuzsanna, FEKSZI Kinga, HEGYI-KÉRI Ágnes “DEEP DRILLING”, CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTAND THE LABOUR MARKET DEPRESSION OF MISKOLC Abstract. Nowadays, about 150 families live in Vasgyár,- a district of Miskolc. This area was one of Hungary's largest industrial bases for centuries. In the middle of the fourth largest city of the country, serious conditions prevailed today. We believe that one reason of the segregation is the already formed labour market depression. In this paper, we approach the developed social problems of the district with economics logic. We introduce the consequences of untreated deindustrialization, highlighting the need of a complex revitalization strategy through the result of a primary study from 2012-2013.

Ke words: labour market depression, brownfields, NGOs, PAD JEL codes: R11, R58, J42, J48 INTRODUCTION In Hungary, the size and the spatial layout of the abounded industrial brownfields are varied. Abandoned mines, industrial factories, barracks can be found throughout the country. However, the disappearance of the industry caused real social problems in the Eastern part of Hungary. In Western Hungary the industry was more developed and excellent entrepreneurial skills and abilities have been available, the revitalization started relatively quickly. In the eastern part of the country there was no opportunity for the restructuring due to the forced industrialization and the non-existent historical entrepreneurial skills. In Hungary, the proportions of brownfields have the highest rate: in Southern Transdanubia

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approx. 2,000 acres and the region of Northern Hungary, where more than 3,200 hectares (70 percent in Borsod). We introduce a poorly defined concept of labor market depression, which paralyzes the analyzed region's new growth path in our view. (Botos 2009):The discovery of brown field investments’ socio-cultural and socio- econometric context is essentially as old as the conception definition of brownfields. There are some facts which lead to the investigation of social aspects of the rehabilitation. On one hand, a distinction should be made between those abandoned or environmentally burdened industrial areas that are in the residential area of communities, villages and those which far from these areas. (Takács 2003) On the other hand, the development or re-utilization of those abandoned industrial areas which close or next to residential environment contributes to the solution of local social crisis. Third, American examples show that experiences of the brownfield investments result very useful knowledge which can be directly utilize in the local industrial development. (Biczó 2013) Related to the industrial drive back, in 2001, lawmakers (No. 91/2001 (June 15) government regulation) classified six Hungarian subregions according to three indicators: the rate of industrial employment, the decrease of employed in the industrial sector, as well as unemployment. Ballabás-Volter (2006) extended further the range of these subregions to eleven, they added migration balance to the indicators (instead of the unemployment rate).19 Setting up the above categories, they do not take into account the brownzones, which developed due to the industrial structure change and their role in the economic development process. Therefore, our study focuses on brownfields that formed due to the deindustrialization. We examine, whether they can effect of supply side of the labour market, through working age population lose its positive attitude in finding a job or in the career building because of the built, under-utilized industrial area. This leads to the formation of the labor market depression. It is assumed that in the depressed industrial areas, not only the transformation of demand side of the labour market slows down the areas’ revitalization but also the passivity on supply side, and hopelessness.The questions of our research are - what is the extension of this labour market depression in Miskolc, how it influences the migration and whether the parents encourage the young generation to migrate as a spillover intergeneration effect.

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The following indicators were used: in 1990, the proportion of industry and building industry employmees from the all active emplyee is 45 percent;the decrease of 1000 the per capita industrial employment rate exceeds the national average (54 percent) between 1990 and 1997, the year average of the migration balance is negative between 1990 and 1997.

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In the North part of Hungary, the rust belt size is more than 3,200 hectares, whrere 70 percent represents the areas of Borsod. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. The county has become the second largest industrial employment area after Pest County and Budapest. It was promoted by those industrial centres in the county which were built in the 1930-40’s. By 1941, the number of industrial employees was 221 per thousand, which was far above of the national average. (Kiss, 2010) In parallel with the population growth, the number of the industrial employees also increased, it has reached 143 thousand persons in 1980 which was outstanding among the rural counties. By 1980, the spatial concentration of industrial employment was 20 persons per km2, it is higher than the national average. In 1990, the proportion of industrial employees has reached 51 percent within the total number of employees, which was the second highest rate among the counties. Therefore, the concentration of Hungarian industry extended to besides Budapest primarily in Borsod County. (Hegyi-Kéri, 2011) Industry meant the dominating demand of the labour market more than 40 years in Northern Hungary; however, this region has also become a big loser of the deindustrialization in the 20th century. The industry degraded and the service sector was not able to follow the increasing demands of the environment. The change of the industrial production showed a dramatic decline. The industrial production dropped to half in 5 years. Industrial buildings have become neglected, brownfields have formed, and labour force did not meet the expectation of the tertiary sector. If we compare the gross value added of this county with the national average, the structural shift to the industry is conspicuous in 2007 as well. This is a reason why the county is not able to move toward from the deadlock. A sign of the region’s poor condition is that the income of the industrial employees is generally much lower, than the service-sector workers’ income. There is struggling with particularly serious socio-economic problems. Due to the degradation of the industry of Borsod, the brownfields are concentrated in Miskolc and Ózd. There are four brownfield areas in Miskolc: three in the city, one located in the outskirts, their total size is 525.84 hectares. The three biggest ones are located next to each other. Table 1. Brownfield areas of Miskolc in 2012.

Name DAM Digép

Type metallurgy machine factory

Size (hectar) 160 45

Északkeleti – Iparterület

mixed industrial

300

Lyukóbánya

mine

21

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Originally, the industry settled in the city’s outskirts and between Diósgyőr and Miskolc but the settlement grew around the area; therefore mutually disturbing functional neighbourhoods developed.( Hajdú, 2008) The Chicago School under the classical human ecological impact of thinking held that the absence of norms and the anomia are caused by ecological conditions; it is like a reflection for surrounding physical environment. The city's social phenomena can be interpreted in the context of the everyday physical environment. At the brownfields the universal tendency intensified that inequalities and increased significantly in Miskolc. The major problems in these districts are long-term unemployment, lack of job opportunities (jobs), low employment, high-poverty, the Romas’ situation, housing problems, public safety, drug and alcohol problems, absence of competitiveness; and the lack of institutional network to treat these problems. The decrease of an average citizen’s situation and quality of life are the most conspicuous in these districts, they think their situation is hopeless, and they have to decide between four possibilities. Firstly, a large number of employers lost their jobs; secondly, they worked out survival strategies, which mean that they moved to places where they found work. Thirdly, they could move abroad like migrant workers; finally, a small group of them became entrepreneurs. Migrant families were partly replaced with new arrivals who are usually the members of the poorest groups, therefore the area will even more decline from the already decreasing average. This has a repulsive effect on the indigenous people; it encourages them to seek a livelihood elsewhere. In these areas this status is missing and its absence left a serious gap. Miskolc was the third most populous city in the country, the population of the mid-eighties increased (early 1986 year 211,660 people), and since then it decreased gradually (at the beginning of 2006 there were only 174,416 people.), in the last five years, it lost 1 percent per year from its population. The following figure shows clearly that migration balance seriously negative both in the county and in the city of Miskolc.

Figure 1. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county and the city of Miskolc migration data between 2002-2008 based on CSO data

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This area was the greatest looser of the political change, the collapse of heavy industry and agriculture hit the North Hungarian region hardest. Its GDP previously exceeded the national average, currently doesn’t reach two-thirds. The labour market of the region, county and city shows a deteriorating mental status, unemployment is the highest through years, here are the largest Roma ghettos, the suicide attempts are at the highest number, life expectancy is the lowest and also the youngest mothers live in this area. All these symptoms are not uniformly present in the region. In our view, the social problems are concentrated and are closely associated with the non-revitalized areas. NGO SECTOR IN MISKOLC BROWNFIELDS Multinational companies are increasingly widespread in Miskolc, they getting stronger and important in this area employing numbers of people. These companies use the latest technologies, but they effect on the small and medium-sized enterprises a negative impact, and it failed to harmonize their operations. The civil sector effectively compensates the deficiencies, but their role is negligible in this region for now. After the transition, a highly homogeneous non-profit sector has been established in Hungary, which made it possible to obtain an increasing role in the management of public functions. A civil servant or public servant is a person in the public sector employed for a government department or agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. So they can realize the basic supply personalized and flexibly, thus counterbalancing the public sector’s universality, impersonality. In Borsod, 3,897 organizations operate, so it means 5.69 organizations per 1000 inhabitants. It is considered to be an average. THE SOCIAL ROLE OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS In the early, pre-modern societies trust played a key role in the relationship in social system of connections. However, the appearance of the information society started to decrease people's trust in the state, state agencies, politics, and the main social organizations. The interpersonal relationships degraded, people feel mistrust. (Putman,. 1993) The regime change and the following dismissals, changes strengthened this situation more, moreover, alienation increased among the members of society in Hungary. Brownfield areas are particularly hard hit by the regime change. We know that the vast majority of brownfield sites located in Baj County that were not revitalized in recent decades. Due to the factory closures a lot of people lost their jobs, but new ones have not been created yet, so these people are lonely, they feel that they are exluded, abandoned. So in the brown fields, more and more people feel that the government abandoned them. However, the NGOs are able to give people the confidence back through their flexibility and if they satisfy their individual needs. These organizations can deal with the problems of 37

the unemployment deeply and personally, they can offer personalized employment opportunities or can retrain them. This can reduce the depression in the labor market. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN THE BROWNFIELDS OF BORSOD The role of social capital becomes increasingly important nowadays. It is very important to strengthen this capital in brownfields, as the stronger, more it is, the higher will be people’s faith in the state, and they can learn to trust in their environment again. Inhabitants of brownfields are convinced that they are left alone; they can only count on themselves. Many people reject the state organs, not trusting that these organs will help them to solve their situation. Another big problem is that in these areas Gypsies live mostly, who have even less ability to enforce their interests. Civil organizations strengthening could compensate this rejection. Voluntary work in the nonprofit sector can strengthen the confidence of the local population. PAD The role of NGOs is prominent in the population retention and remigration processes. These organizations may be authentic mediators towards the emigrated, suggesting that they should stay in the area or return there. Social networks are formed, whose support is similar to the migration, the remigration and circular migration’s positive balance. We see the solution of this situation in the PAD concept, which basically deals with the migration and its elements. Firstly, we had to formulate some scenarios, using the GEO4 report. Market solution: The achievement of human prosperity is facilitated through the support of the private sector. That is, the government strives to create favourable domestic conditions for the workforce; and to adopt market-compatible solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of migration. Political solution: The government is able to stop emigration using political tools. It also attracts knowledge in order to help backward regions. It runs state-owned research institutes and supports educational institutions in the country; it concentrates the state investments in the lagging regions. Safety: Here the government and the private sector compete for the control. It is important from the point of view of migration because in this case there are scenarios in which self-regulation and re-burdening have role. Sustainability: It entails the cooperation of the private sector, the society and the government in order to ensure human welfare. (Labour) migration develops in a 38

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way that the labour markets of the less developed countries of Europe are able to reproduce themselves: in this way the systems of the welfare-state based on redistribution will not collapse; the classical social insurance system is able to work. Strategies are based on interests: it is the interests that answer the question why a strategy is necessary and the environment determines where the strategy should be implemented. The strategy itself refers to what and how should be done. In order to lay the groundwork for migration strategy, we designed the PAD model which is presented below:

Figure 2. PAD Concept of Migration Dabasi 2009 PROTECTION: means to curb the immigration jeopardizing the County, the objective of which is to maintain the fragile peace of the society. Although the emphasis of my dissertation was to call attention to the losses caused by emigration, one has to pay attention to immigration as well. On the one hand, we assert that a strong and selective procedure of getting residence and work permit is necessary. However, EU citizens’ migration should not be administratively hindered. One way of protection is strengthening the national self-awareness, interpreted in its correct meaning. This means, that Hungarian employees or employees from the County should enjoy preference. On the other hand, the society and the people employed in infrastructure facilities should be prepared for the rippling world-tendency that more and more foreigners will settle down. 39

ATTRACTION: Because of the loss of population (natural loss and emigration), the demographical self-reliance of the County has become less and less. The labour market trends, as we have proven earlier, clearly need supplementing the loss of the population from external sources. The demand is twofold: highly qualified workforce with innovative marketable knowledge and highly skilled workers are needed. Similarly to the theory of the American migration policy, the migration strategy has to support immigration of artists, doctors and people coming from afar because their presence may revitalize competition. DEFENCE: refers to retaining the population born in the County to decrease the willingness to emigrate. It is essential that policy makers concentrate on people with outstandingly good skills (innate and gained competences). Two solutions are recommended at this point: on the one hand establishing local educational and research bases, financing and supporting public education. On the other hand, paving the way for the circular migration is also the task of the strategy. It means creating opportunities that motivates people working or studying abroad to return home. Areas of the County in bad social conditions also need special attention for economic reasons. SOLUTION Recommended tools for developing a migration policy for the County 1. “Mainstreaming”: that is migration becomes a mainstream element of every special policy area 2. Peer review 3. Administration and institutions of migration policy; and the co-existence of the actors of migration with local community. Local governments’ responsibility relating to migration should be enforced much more radically than it is today. 4. Creating an innovative milieu, one of the main task of which is retaining workforce. These environments have to include research bases and the belonging satellite offices. 5. The objective of promoting people’s staying in their home-land, by way of supporting them, tends to be obsolete after the EU accessions. The main question is that the doctrine of “staying in home-land” is still valid or not. Since the EU itself is not going into this direction, it is becoming an anachronism. Characteristically, many people has been leaving for abroad for study and work and this trend is expected to get stronger in the future. The circular migration should be exploited through scholarship programs and through resettlement supported by the county chambers. 40

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6. Governments’ and local governments’ support is essential for the increase of the weight of the civil society so that social institutions can cooperate with ethnic institutions in order to mitigate tensions. 7. Improving the mental environment: the migration strategy has to focus on treating the society’s depression as well. 8. Scholarships granted by the government and the local governments to promote returning home or staying at home. Scholarships should support the scientific career of those young researchers and teachers who intend to do their scientific job at a regional (or county) company or institution. Academic positions and PhD scholarships financed at county-level should be introduced SUGGESTIONSS In the limited access societies the political system is often used for gaining supplies and for the elimination of the potential rivals. Today, in the contemporary Hungarian economy the opportunities are systematically not equal; regardless whether it is a government order, support or access, or it is a business interaction. Our research question has intended to reveal the connection between the brown zones and labour market depression; the non-revitalized brownfields and the lack of the opportunities cause the population’s migration. A suitable method to understand the psychological aspect of the social situation is the self-identification, which means the subjective assessment of the social situation. Actually, we think of our social-economical conditions better or worse – this is more often – than the real situation. This subjective social status indicator provides information about how we experience our social stratification daily. If the society is collectively moody, it views its socio-economic status gloomy, more people will emigrate. We have verified our hypothesis in a logical way: the failure of the revitalization causes labour market problems. Due to the degradation of industrial areas, the city’s labour market has become depressed. Government intervention, a strong development concept, the definition of the new functions and the reindustrialization are needed to avoid this depression, or to find a new path for it. REFERENCES 1. Ballabás Gábor – Volter Edina (2006): Egykori válságtérségeink fejlettségi-környezeti modellvizsgálatának alapjai, in: III. Magyar Földrajzi Konferencia tudományos közleményei, Budapest, 2006. szeptember 6-7. pp. 1-13. 2. Biczó Gábor (2013) - A barnamezős beruházások szociokulturális háttere és jelentősége Észak-Amerikában. Észak-magyarországi stratégiai füzetek, X. 1. sz. pp. 116-124. Miskolc 41

3. Botos Balázs (2009): Versenyképesség és külkereskedelem. Európai Tükör, 14 (7-8), 42-51. 4. Dabasi Halász, Zs.–Fekszi, K. (2013) - Conscience of society. The role of the NGOs in the labour market of Miskolc's brownfields. XXVII. MicroCAD ISBN: 978-963-358-018-9 5. Dabasi Halász, Zs. – Fekszi, K. (2013) - The obstacle of the remigration due to the lack of the revitalisation. Romanian Review of Regional Studies, Volume IX, Number 2, December 2013, pp.61-66. 6. Dabasi Halász, Zs. (2009) - Nyertesek és vesztesek! A nemzetközi migráció stratégiai tényezői és tendenciái Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megyében, Ph.D értekezés, Miskolc 7. Hajdú, I. (2008) - Acélváros: társadalom és építészet kölcsönhatásában 8. Hegyi-Kéri, Á. (2011): A regionális gazdaságfejlesztés kihívásai az északmagyarországi régióban: barnamezős revitalizáció a munkaerőpiac tükrében. (The regional economic development challenges in the region of Northern Hungary: brownfield revitalization of the labor market) Erdei Ferenc Nemzetközi Konferencia VI. Tudományos Konferencia 9. Putman, R. D. (1993): The prosperous community: social capital and public life. In The American Prospect, 4 (13), 11-18. 10. Takács Zita (2003): Az ipar leépülésének jelensége néhány külföldi példán. In Tóth I. János (szerk.): Észak-Magyarország gazdasági helyzete 19902001 (pp. 13-26). Budapest: Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara Gazdaság- és Vállalkozáselemzési Intézet. 11. Kiss, É. (2010): Területi szerkezetváltás a magyar iparban 1989 után. (Territorial restructuring of the Hungarian industry after 1989) Dialóg Kiadó, Budapest-Pécs „This research was realized in the frames of TÁMOP 4.2.4. A/2-11-1-20120001 „National Excellence Program – Elaborating and operating an inland student and researcher personal support system convergence program” The project was subsidized by the European Union and co-financed by the European Social Fund.”

CONTACT 1. Zsuzsanna Dabasi Halász, University of Miskolc, [email protected] 2. Kinga Fekszi, University of Miskolc, [email protected] 3. Ágnes Hegyi-Kéri, University of Miskolc, [email protected]

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DABASI-HALÁSZ Zsuzsanna, VIZKELETI Anna "DOUBLE-FACE CITY", GREEN EXPERIMENTS IN AN INDUSTRIAL CITY

Abstract. The revitalization of the abandoned industrial brown fields is important from several points of view in the 21th century. The research team of the University of Miskolc thought, the developments needs technological, economical, legal and environmental factors, which play an important role in the revitalization and the local community's situational conditions and interests are a futher factor which increases the efficiency. In our study I would like to show the green experiments which can moderate the problems of the brownfields. Our methods are the economically logic based argument, secondary data analysis and we present one part of the prime survey.

Keywords: brownfield areas, sustainable development, green projects JEL-codes: R11, R58, J42, J48. INTRODUCTION Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The sustainable ecological condition is the need of the present without compromising the ecological systems rewenable ability. (Buday-Sántha 2006) Target: The Brundtland Report goes on to say that sustainable development also contains within it two key concepts: instead of strained growth the considered development is the better way, whose criterias are: - the rate of utilization of renewable resources should not exceed their regeneration rate; - the rate of use of non-renewable resources does not exceed the rate of regeneration of renewable substitutes; - the amount of polluting emissions do not exceed the natural capacity of absorbing. (Lányi 2007) The three pillars of sustainable development are the harmonious development of the economy the society and the environment. In this context: the environment is the base of the sustainable development, the economy is the tool to achieve the

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sustainable development, while the life (social dimension) is thegoal of the sustainable development20. MISKOLC AS A SEGREGATED CITY The segregated part of Miskolc is defined in the census in 2011 and published in the Urban Regeneration Handbook. The areas defined the so called segregation index ( due to the Handbook we called the area segregated when the people who have only primary school graduate and who live without a regular income from employment reach or exceeds 50% in the working-age population. We show 9 indicators which can define 15 segregated area.21. The indicators are in the following table: The indicators of segregation Indicator 1. The proportion of those who have up to eight classes of primary school between 15-59 years opf age. 2. Tertiary education rate among the population aged 25 years 3. Proportion of low-prestige occupational groups employed in 2011 (category of 7,8,9 employment main group) 4. The proportion of economically not active population inside of the action area's population

1st table Value (%) 71,3 1,2 72,5 73,7

5. Unemployment rate in the action area (unemployment rate)

55,1

6. The proportion of the long-term unemployment (at least 360 days)

28,8

7. High proportion of those of active age (15-59 years old who in 2011 were relying solely on state or local funding). 8. The proportion of those who lives without the comfort, amenities and of housing need within inhabited housing.

90,3

20

Dr Tóthné dr Szita Klára, Dr. Csordás Tamás, Dr. Dabasi Halász Zsuzsanna, Roncz Judit, Síposné Nándori Eszter: Fenntartható fejlődés- gazdálkodás a természeti és emberi erőforrásokkal 21 Forrás: MISKOLC MEGYEI JOGÚ VÁROS INTEGRÁLT TELEPÜLÉSFEJLESZTÉSI STRATÉGIÁJA III. HELYZETÉRTÉKELÉS, Miskolc, 2013. 103.o.

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9. The one bedroom apartments within inhabited housing

65,0

Source: MISKOLC MEGYEI JOGÚ VÁROS INTEGRÁLT TELEPÜLÉSFEJLESZTÉSI STRATÉGIÁJA III. HELYZETÉRTÉKELÉS, Miskolc, 2013. 105-106.o. KSH adatok alapján

With the ending of the industrial plans the low-skilled employer lost their jobs. These groups of the society break off from the society for generation and they can hardly come back to the normal life. During the long-term unemployment their situation futher declines, and also they hardly find a job again. The psychic side is more dangerous, they loose their self-confidency, self-esteem, once with their jobs, their family's in- and outside relationship go wrong. In the so called "Vasgyár"area the houses are half without comfort, the houses need to be furnished and it shows the inhabitants bad living conditions. The areas of DAM are partly abandoned brownfield areas, the unsettled ownership, the run-down infrastructure, the revitalization (despite the fact of the numerous studies done) are unsolved. Based on this background, we see that the area of Miskolc is loaded with socioeconomic-urban conflicts. The people are hopeless, socially excluded, human relationships are loosened, they have not got plans for the future. In our research the main aspect is, that the territorial environmental-evaluation which are based on the environmental indicators have to connect with the sustainable development examination. (Roncz - Tóthné, 2012). 260 people were asked in the questionnaire survey, who live in the neighborhood in the brownfield areas and the mines22. The results of the survey demonstrated that the inhabitants resignated to their fate, they are not abel to change their environment. To this, the former city government also contributed with the flawed urban policy. Their advocacy strategy was based on that they seems that the county and also the city were in a really bad situation and they needed external support, this county could not improve on its own efforts. The media also spoke about this region in negative reports23. These facts support the public's attitude about changing the environment, fact that has been illustrated below.

22

Survey on the brownfields areas shows that the inhabitants have incomplete informations, and they did not express their opinion about the significant dangers of the area. 23 Beszámoló Miskolc és Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye szociális fejlesztési koncepciójának szociológiai megalapozása című kutatásáról 2004. 10.o.

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Assuming that the average monthly salary is netto 100000 HUF, how much per month would be willing to sacrifice the injured, abandoned areas for resycling/relaunch, the 52.31 percent of the respondents sacrifice nothing, 26.92 percent are prepared to pay less than 5000 HUF. Assuming that the average monthly salary is netto 400000 HUF, how much per month would be willing to sacrifice the injured, abandoned areas for resycling/re-launch, the 20.38 percent of the respondents sacrifice nothing, 42.31 percent are prepared to pay less than 15000 HUF. (Figure 1)

Figure 1 How much per month would one be willing to sacrifice when we assume that the average monthly salary is net 100000 HUF or when we assume that the average monthly salary is netto 400000 HUF Source: own editing from the research of the Department

The respondents could assign the importance of environmental protection to a certain grade (Figure 2). The figures clearly show that the importance of environmental protection of values is not listed, they are not interested in their environment.

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Figure 2 The importance of the environmental protection Source: own editing from the research of the Department

We want to contrast with this segregated area's difference and the adults thoughts the result of another research, which was conducted in October 2009 among high school students. With the primary research, we asked 640 students, including the Gyula Fényi Jesuit High School in Miskolc. From the Jesuit High School 80 students responded to the questions. We examine their knowledge and attitudes connection with the climate change, because the fight against the climate change is that problem, which can not solve the state alone. The state requires the awareness of the society, it needs to strengthen the climate of a friendly production and consuming patterns, and of course the business world's energy saving, environmental awareness and the media's help and support. "Thechange of the social aspect is essential (collaboration, shared responsibility) to promote to certain social groups. The first important step is the environmental education: the environmental consciousness, the improvement of the environmentally responsible life, and the achievement of a climate of awareness from an early childhood through the different age groups of people accompany all his life "(NCCS page 93). Between September 5-12th, 2006 national opinion polls have been have been conducted among, which was the first climate survey in Hungary according to the authors (Mosoniné et al 2007). The answers given by the students could be compared with the adult populations’ answers and the results of a research which was taken in the UK in 2004.

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The survey questions can be summarized in the following groups: Demographic and general exploratory data; awareness of their own experiences, expectations related to climate change; Reviews of the causes of climate change, personal involvement and opinion on interventions, their engagement in measures in the climate change mitigation, and private consumer attitudes rating. Without being complete, here are some remarkable results of the research: Students are better informed about global climate change, as in 2006 speaking of the Research Institute annual adult population. 15% more marked among the students to be more informed about. 5% more specifically well-informed, nearly 9% fewer people said that they are not very well informed. The 81 percent of the surveyed students said that the causes of climate change are the human-made actions, it is a higher proportion than the MTA, or the British research. While in the British research 4% responded that there will be no climate change, while the other half % of the students answered the same. According to the MTA and the British survey the asked people mentioned the deforestation, road and air transport, coal and oil-fired power plants mentioned as the most serious man-made effects. According to the majority the problems which are associated with climate change could be best solved at the global level, but it was mentioned of course that the European level, the national level of government, and is similar in proportion to the individual households. It is an interesting result that 40 percent of the Hungarian adult population said that on the global level one can deal with the climate changes, 60% of the British surveyed people said that, while 50.41 percent of high school students said that too

Figure 3 Source: own editing from the research of the Department

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Nearly 78% of the surveyed students would be willing to change their lifestyle if it contributes to reducing the effects of climate change (Figure 3).We can summarize the results of the research as the following. The students have some information, but they have to broaden their knowledge in order to treat the climate change adequately. They accept the social responsibility, they see that the problem can be solved only at global level, jointly. They do not expect the solution only from the government or other organizations, they want to work for it, too. They are willing to change their lifestyle in order to reduce the effects of the climate change. Speaking of reducing the environmental effect, the role of environmental education - transmitting such new attitudes, which are protecting the Earth’s natural resources, which are significant for the development and survival of humanity – is very important. (Tóthné, 2009). The City Council found out, that new city development policy and strategy is needed. It is necessary to build up a new strategy, a search for local resources, competences, which a sustainable development can be based on, by mobilising local sources, developing human resources, strengthening the bilateral communication and making the local enterprises, civil organizations and local residents involved. Through this it will be possible to make the life of citizens more comfortable in an environmentally friendly way, harming the environment less. GREEN STRATEGY PROJECTS The „Zöld Nyíl Miskolci Villamos Projekt” (Green Arrow Tram Project of Miskolc) is one of them. Its comprehensive purpose to create a long term sustainable, competitive, environmental friendly, fast and safe public transport across the East-West transport axis of Miskolc, and to form a modern cityscape by the complex development of the tramway transport. Its direct goal is to improve the standard of the local public transport by modernising the current tramway, network development and buying new tramcars. The new tramline heading east will reveal the DAM industrial site, helping the renewing of the brownfield site. According to the project schedule, the following were planned for 2008: finishing the real technical content and construction plans, the detailed feasibility study with cost-benefit analysis, preparing the aid application which includes them, preparing the assembly decision, handing in the aid application for the EU, beginning the construction. In the beginnings the expected date of the finishing of the investment was 2011, but it changed to 31st December, 2014 later. The net cost of the project is 37,7 billion HUF. Cooperating partners: : MVK Ltd., City of Miskolc, Miskolc

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Holding Trust Company Ltd. The name of the project refers to „the dynamics of modernisation and environmental development”24. The city of Miskolc considers it a priority the growing use of renewable energy respecting environmental and economical viewpoints, it overlaps the efforts of Hungary and the EU. In the last few years and currently the city is carrying out a number of environmetal friendly programs, in one of them houses are heated with biogas gained from the city’s former garbage dump. The „Miskolci Hőszolgáltató Kft.” produces the heating from green energy in the city quarter called Hejőcsaba. The Biogas Power Station of Miskolc is not an agricultural biogas plant, but it is a great example for recycling organic waste. In a peripheral area of Miskolc, in the garbage dump on the Bogáncs street from 1973 to 2006 5 million tons of communal waste were disposed. After closing this dump, the covering and revegetation of the site took place. Landfill gases (metan gas)were arising in the closed dump, the use of this is beneficial both from environmental and economical viewpoints. By the cooperation of the City Council of Miskolc and the Miskolci Hőszolgáltató Kft. (Miskolc Heat Supplier LLC) in the spring of 2008 the tender handed in by MIHŐ Kft. was accepted. The MIHŐ Kft. used 550 000 m3 biogas in 2009, which substituted 357 500 m3 of natural gas use in the heat distribution service. The arising of biogas in the revegetated dump site is permanent. The yielded gas is used up in winter by the heat distribution service. But in summer to produce warm water less biogas is necessary. In order to use the full amount of biogas during this period, in the second stroke of the investment the installation of an electricityproducing gas motor took place. In order to provide the gas motor with permanent power the already existing 84 gas well stock was broadened with another 67 gas wells. The commercial process of this gas motor started in 2010. The MIHŐ Kft. sells the produced electricity through the system of Elmű - ÉMÁSZ Hálózati Szolgáltató Kft. . According to the calculations the electricity production based on renewable energy will bring 50-60 million HUF income per year, thereby the natural gas dependency of Miskolc can be reduced. During the investment time the air pollution is expected to decrease with 58.000 tons of carbon-dioxid. The greatest result of this project is that it uses the available alternative energy sources to protect the air quality and the health of the population. Another priority to ensure competitive prices in heat distribution service even if the price of natural gas will grow25.The achievement of this project is a good example for the recycling 24

Source: http://zoldnyil.hu/ Environmental management, Prof. Tamás János, Prof. Blaskó Lajos (2008) Debreceni Egyetem a TÁMOP 4.1.2 pályázat keretein belül, Digitális Tankönyvtár, Miskolci Hőszolgáltató Kft. 2010.

25

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of biogas in Hungary, because the dump site on Bogáncs Street is the largest revegetated dump site in the country, its size is 22 ha. The above mentioned projects show, that the city council follows a city development strategy, which intends to carry out sustainable development and sustainability during the city development and management. SUMMARY We think that the green projects can offer the city two possibly outcomes. First, they reduce the contamination of the area by their technological innovatiness and energy efficiency, they redevelop. Second, they bring a positive effect on the wellbeing of the depressed city inhabitants and thereby improve their labour market potential, strengthen their environmental awareness.

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REFERENCES 1. Beszámoló Miskolc és Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye szociális fejlesztési koncepciójának szociológiai megalapozása című kutatásáról (2004.) p 10 (Review of research and sociological foundations of Miskolc BorsodAbaúj-Zemplén county social development concept was) 2. BUDAY-SÁNTHA ATTILA (2009): Környezetgazdálkodás, Dialog Campus Kiadó (Environmental Management) 3. MOSONINÉ FRIED JUDIT- PÁLINKÓ ÉVA – STEFÁN ESZTER (2007): Közvélemény és klímaváltozás, MTA Kutatásszervezési Intézet “KLÍMA-21” Füzetek 2007. 49. sz.( Opinion and climate change) 4. PROF. TAMÁS JÁNOS, PROF. BLASKÓ LAJOS (2008): Environmental management, Debreceni Egyetem a TÁMOP 4.1.2 pályázat keretein belül, Digitális Tankönyvtár 5. EURÓPAI BIZOTTSÁG (2007): Az éghajlatváltozás elleni küzdelem című kiadványa alapján, Európa mozgásban sorozat 6. JONATHAN A. PATZ, MD, MPH, STEPHEN J. VAVRUS, PHD, CHRISTOPHER K. UEJIO, MA, SANDRA L. MCLELLAN, PHD (2008):Climate Change and Waterborne Disease Risk in the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. 7. KAREN PITTELA, DIRK T.G. RÜBBELKEB [2008]:Climate policy and ancillary benefits: A survey and integration into the modelling of international negotiations on climate change 8. LÁNG ISTVÁN (2002): Mindentudás egyeteme, 9.előadás 9. LÁNYI ANDRÁS (2007): A fenntartható társadalom, L'HarmattanKiadó, Budapest. (Sustainable society) 10. MARGALIT YOUNGER, MPH, HEATHER R. MORROW-ALMEIDA, MPH, STEPHEN M. VINDIGNI, MPH, ANDREW L. DANNENBERG, MD, MPH (2008): The Built Environment, Climate Change, and Health Opportunities for Co-Benefits 11. MISKOLC MEGYEI JOGÚ VÁROS INTEGRÁLT TELEPÜLÉSFEJLESZTÉSI STRATÉGIÁJA III. HELYZETÉRTÉKELÉS, Miskolc, 2013 12. Nemzeti Éghajlatváltozási Stratégia (NÉS) 13. RONCZ JUDIT - TÓTHNÉ SZITA KLÁRA (2012): A barnamezős területek újrahasznosításának megítélése metaanalízis alapján, különös tekintettel az Észak-magyarországi régióra, Észak-magyarországi Stratégiai Füzetek, 2013. X. évfolyam 1. szám, 12-25. o. ( Judgement of the revitalisation of brownfield lands based on meta-analysis, with special regard to the Northern Hungarian region )

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14. TÓTHNÉ SZITA KLÁRA-CSORDÁS TAMÁS-DABASI HALÁSZ ZSUZSANNA-RONCZ JUDIT-SÍPOSNÉ NÁNDORI ESZTER (2012): Fenntartható fejlődés- gazdálkodás a természeti és emberi erőforrásokkal (Development of sustainable management of natural and human resources) 15. TÓTHNÉ DR.SZITA KLÁRA (2009): A globális világ politikai- kulturális és gazdasági változásai, értékei és szcenáriói, MISKOLCI EGYETEM, Világ- és Regionális Gazdaságtan Intézet, Kézirat CONTACT Zsuzsanna Dr. Dabasi-Halász, ME Institute of World and Regional Economics [email protected] Anna Vizkeleti,ME Institute of World and Regional Economics, [email protected]

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GERÉB László, AMBRUS Tibor THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SZEKLERLAND FROM HUMAN POINT OF VIEW - that is a paradigm shift concerning the economic development in Szeklerland (This research was supported by the European Union and the State of Hungary, cofinanced by the European Social Fund in the framework of TÁMOP-4.2.4.A/ 211/1-2012-0001 ‘National Excellence Program’.) 1. THE PRACTICE OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT – MACROECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW The key to the harmonious development of a region, territorial unit is the existence of a development strategy framed on base of professional criteria. This way it is possible to ensure the development of the region for decades. Through this, the ultimate condition of a strategy is for the region to have a vision. This expectation exists in case of Szeklerland as well. The vision of a region is that target situation which is to be accomplished during a decade - decade and a half. In the 20 years following the change of regime, Szeklerland has accomplished a significant economical development. The further sustainability of this development process is determined by the improvement of the living conditions of the inhabitants and by the preservation of its social, economic and environmental values. Szeklerland longs for an acceptable Hungarian future in the given historical-geographical region, through the preservation of its traditions and specific values. This vision can be formulated on base of the following three ideas: 1.) Social vision: The political and economical elite collaborating in interest of the common targets. 2.) Economical vision: Szeklerland is a centre characterized by economical/social collaboration that is able to economically harness its specific endowment, its spiritual and material resources. 3.) Environmental vision: The organic cohabitation with the environment, as ensuring the sustainability of a specific way of living. Among the three major ideas above we only deal with the economical one and within it we apply an unconventional, micro-economical point of view regarding it. The strategies involving economic development attempt to trace the economic 54

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opportunities of a region based on characteristically macroeconomic aspects; the entrepreneurial sector appears in these studies merely as a passive character of these strategies. It is noticeable in more and more cases that enterprises are the ones which develop the region; they are the engines of the regional development. So they cannot be taken as passive characters, the development of a region is unimaginable without their special role. This is exponentially valid for Szeklerland, where it seems to be an impossible task to shape the macroeconomic environment for the best interest of the region. Knowing the above we endeavor to draw up a special economic development strategy structured on microeconomic points of view, based on the entrepreneurial sphere. Why does Szeklerland need a strategy like this? Why is Szeklerland different from any other European regions? One shall seek the root of the problem in the fact that Szeklerland is an ethnic region in the middle of a country; this is why the interests of the central authority and those of the region do not always converge. However one of the main conditions of the region development strategy with macroeconomic bases is, that the central authorities are active participants, shapers of the strategy because without them the macroeconomic elements concerned cannot be used in the development of the respective region. While this principle is self-evident in case of the relationship between Budapest – Észak-Dunántúl region, that is Budapest is interested in the development of the Észak-Dunántúl region, the same is not obvious in the relation-system between Szeklerland and the Romanian central authorities. At the same time, a development strategy coming from Szeklerland is not only deemed not to acquire efficient sponsoring from the central authorities, the local authorities are immobilized as well due to jurisdiction, to the fact that they are defenseless in front of the central authorities and because of the shortage of resources. This state is well reflected in the fact that in the 24 years that have passed since the change of regime, not one regional strategy, not even one that came from a Szeklerland county or locality was put into practice. The reasons for this should be searched for in the fact that the development strategies structured upon macroeconomic principles suppose that the macroeconomic environmental elements can be influenced, can be altered according to the objectives of the strategy. Nevertheless this is almost impossible in case of Szeklerland having a special status. If we analyze the components of the economic environment of Szeklerland one by one (see László Geréb: A székelyföldi vállalkozói környezet STEEPLE elemzése [The STEEPLE analysis of the entrepreneurial environment of Szeklerland]. In: Tibor Ambrus: Vállalkozói műhelytitkok Erdélyben [Entrepreneurial secrets in Transylvania]), we can learn that alteration of these environmental elements being directed from- and in interest of Szeklerland is almost impossible within the present conditions.

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This is what gave the idea to elaboration of an economic development concept from entrepreneurial point of view on the level of micro-economy that is structured below (that is from Szeklerland) rather than one that is again coming from above (that is from Bucharest), which has at least the same effect on economy and at the same time it can much more easily be influenced from and in the interest of Szeklerland, that is to find that level of regional economic development we can influence. And this is the microeconomic level or the level of entrepreneurs, with its two important human components: employees and the employer organizations.

Figure 1. Human-based and microeconomic development strategy of Szeklerland. Source: Self edited In this program there is a very important basic principle: the fact that people, more precisely Szekler people, work in the microsphere. The accomplishment of this added value of Szeklerland depends on these people working in organizations and of course on their leadership. In our view, we put down the foundations of a whole different human-based and micro-economic development strategy referring to Szeklerland by the present thesis, its essence being the outlining of the development of the microsphere instead of the priority of the macroeconomic point of view, as the well-functioning micro-organizations (and within them the work of 56

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Szekler people) ensure the practical result of strategic thinking. This model is presented through Figure 1. 2. PARADIGM SHIFT IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT – MICROECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW By further unfolding the microeconomic point of view, the leading idea of the work is that we analyzed Szeklerland as a region, by methods characteristic to the entrepreneurial sphere, and through these methods we searched for resolutions to proceed. As the functioning of an enterprise is determined by three primordial factors, the same is valid for the economic development of a regional unit: business infrastructure, human resources and management or organization ensuring the efficient functioning of the former two factors. Among these three factors, the first one depends on investments and means, the second and the third on human resources. Based on the above ideas, the development of Szeklerland can be launched by the development of these three factors, as follows: 1.) Hardware – business infrastructure (that can be operated by humans) This factor is the one that depends most on the macroeconomic environment, its shaping being very circumstantial considering the special situation of Szeklerland. In the same time this is the factor whose development needs many resources (investments) and the changes can only be felt after a long period of time. The financial return is slow as well. Based on this, the emphasis should be put on the other two factors, which are much more easily influenced, and the effect of the influence is much rapidly traceable. 2.) Software – human resorces (humans operate all assets) The added value ensuring the success and efficiency of an enterprise obviously depends on the know-how and willingness of the people working there. This way for the enterprises of Szeklerland the factor of well qualified labor force is of utmost importance as it is in the case of all companies in whichever part of the world. In our view the key to the development of enterprises functioning here as well as of the region is the ensuring of the well-qualified labor force. In order to find an answer to the question what kind of human resources, specialists Szeklerland needs, we thoroughly examined the development strategies of Szeklerland – county-, sector-, locality-based strategies – and in the case of the take-off points of the respective strategies we estimated the human resources-need of these take-off points according to sectors and scientific domains. The results of this research represent an outstanding starting point for the establishment of a developmenttraining program for a development-centered human capital concerning Szeklerland. 57

3.) Orgware – organization (organization of labor and plant, the performance of humans can be explored by systems thinking, and assets are operated optimally through this) Practice shows that it is not enough if a firm possesses an outstanding infrastructure and well-qualified labor force, the best organization of the previous two factors is also needed. Without professional management companies that dispose of the best equipment and best specialists may still go bankrupt. According to our experiences in case of the management of the enterprises of Szeklerland there is a serious development potential, through the exploitation of which the enterprises of the region might acquire perceivable advantage and this would have a positive effect on the whole development of the region. In order to shape an opinion about the development potential inherent in the enterprises of the region, we processed the experiences of a eight years long work regarding organization development, involving 70 enterprises of Szeklerland, by scientific methodology. As a result of this processing an overview of the enterprises of Szeklerland has been outlined, from which the development potential obviously emerges and we also found out which domains should be developed and how. 2.1. DEVELOPMENT OF JOB SEEKERS AND OF EMPLOYEES IN FRAME OF TRADITIONAL TRAINING FORMS In this part the development possibilities of the ”Software” part within the human point of view –that is employees at a company- will be analyzed on the basis of the traditional school-type training means. The main principle of the program is: to train quality employees, this quality being the benefit of the employee, of the organization that hired him/her, and on a greater level of the whole region This is why we analyzed the development strategies ever made up in Szeklerland, and within this the need of human resources of these strategies. The basis of this analysis represents the assumption that the take-off points formulated in these development strategies might mean the future development lines of the region, and this kind of development cannot be fulfilled without qualified labor force. Generally it can be stated that many strategies appeared in Szeklerland, especially in the past 8-10 years almost all territorial units drew up a development or planning documentation of a certain level, within the region that can be called Szeklerland. Nevertheless in the qualitative structure of these strategies there is much room for improvement. It is a general statement, and this way it is rough and superficial although still relevant that most of these strategies did not have the target to shape and plan the will of the community, but represent one of the means of the local administration, they are one of the compulsory tasks, which occasionally helps to access different financial sources. At the same time it can be stated and may be considered even a positive fact that there are strategies on several levels of the 58

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region: county strategy, what's more: even two counties have a common strategy, small region strategy, LEADER region strategy, town-, commune-, metropolis zone strategies, and there are also strategies that serve very specific domains or sectors (touristic, agricultural, sport, etc.) However it is a sad fact, that none of these strategies have been applied yet. We can state that the first strategies of Szeklerland in the new millennium are especially investment-oriented. This is partially understandable, since, compared to the western economies we are behind them from a material point of view – or is this just the more perceptible, plausible difference? This is a question that cannot be settled in this place, but we are convinced that there are shortcomings at least to the same extent in what the social organization, organization, and intellectual content, operable institutions are concerned, as regarding the constructed and natural environment. This way the local society should spend on the intellectual values and organic development through programs and arrangements. It is also true, there is a shift to the configuration of several programs, organizations and systems, but in our opinion there is still plenty of work to do. This way on base of the analysis of the 14 strategies the following can be established: 1.) From among the intellectual-type of professions the main driving force of the private sector emerges, the importance of training economists and marketing specialists, the significance of technical trainings as well as the education, pedagogy as basic activity for the insurance of the future. In our opinion there is a need for an enormous qualitative – not just quantitative – change in the field of teacher- training and other types of trainer-instruction. 2.) The social economy of the region is oversized; the need for human resources is high. In this case it is an important question whether the financing of this can be accomplished or not. 3.) The need for human resources of the knowledge-based sectors, of the activities supposing new technologies is surprisingly and significantly underestimated, for example the bio-engineering, telecommunication and IT research-development, and the reason for this the already mentioned excessively investment-oriented strategies. 4.) The regional sectoral-, regional county- and locality strategies of Szeklerland contain the visions of the politicians and development specialists regarding the future of this region. The region development take-off criteria formulated in these strategies are important but they do not put adequate emphasis on the entrepreneurial aspect. This way the need of human capital expected by the programs, arrangements formulated in the strategies do not reflect correspondingly the priorities regarding the development of human capital of the region, as such expectations of the entrepreneurs do not figure pronouncedly in them. 5.) In order for the need for human capital of the entrepreneurial side to be shown in numbers, a research directly contacting the entrepreneurs is needed. 59

Such a research is accomplished practically by help of professional organizations, entrepreneurial unions, chambers. Such a research is indispensable in order to reach the targets set out at the beginning of the thesis. 6.) The strategies do not contain substantial steps in what vocational training and the training of instructed workers is concerned. The number of these trainings is irrelevant, their quality needs to be improved and the relationship with the enterprises needs to be developed. The importance of vocational trainings must be re-established and it has to be linked to the needs of the enterprise. Enterprises should be the beneficiaries of the schools as suppliers. 7.) The take-off points need to emerge from the basic training and should end in the university level education. The human capital needs of the analyzed 14 strategies can be summed up in the following table: Table no.1: Need of human capital induced by the development strategies of Szeklerland Approximate assessments

Technologybased qualifications

Total

Architecture, statics, landscape architecture, monument preservers, urbanism Mechanical engineering, energetics, electric engineering

20-36

4-7

30-60

50-100

32-82

3

10-35

35-110

Road-bridge planning, survey, transport science, logistics

25-40

0

12-22

35-60

4-6

0

7-11

10-20

1-30

0

0

1-30

Education, pedagogy, psychology, communication

80-120

16-26

70-140

160-280

Economy, management, marketing, tender writing etc.

140-240

13-27

17-34

170-300

Cultural managers, ethnographic-, archeology-, art experts

35-51

4-6

20-40

60-100

Sociology, social worker, rural development, community organization

47-61

13-16

30-80

90-1.600

Planning of hydrologic public utilities Wood industry, wood processing Social sciencebased qualifications

County Regional Localty strategies strategies strategies

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Public administration, law, diplomacy, other

10-17

4-5

3-7

15-30

Tourism, travel organization

75-110

9-18

8-16

90-150

Natural Science Forestry, forest engineering, based wildlife management qualifications Agricultural engineer, agricultural entrepreneur

12-25

5-7

0

17-32

65-100

8-13

3-7

75-120

Ecology, environment protection, waste management

20-27

5

4-8

30-40

Biology, biotechnology, food industry

7-15

3-5

1-5

10-25

Geology, hydrogeology

5-6

0

0

5-6

50-110

4-5

6-13

60-130

-

-

4-5

4-5

Medical sciences, pharmacy, medical research

other

Physical education, sport

Source: Self edited on base of the analysis of the respective strategies, with contribution of Benedek Nagy phD 2.2. DEVELOPMENT THE ORGANIZATIONS OF SZEKLERLAND, TRAINING THE LEADERS OF ORGANIZATIONS In this part we present the development potential of the ”Orgware” side of the human domain in case of the enterprises of Szeklerland. The statements were based on the results of a work regarding organization development that last eight years involving 70 enterprises of Szeklerland. a. Organizational culture The question is what kind of organizational culture do the Transylvanian - Szekler organizations/ possess. The known types of cultures: team, the supportive culture, adhocracy the developing-, hierarchy the rule-oriented- and result, the performance culture. The rule-orientation, the hierarchy-type organizational culture is characteristic for Szeklerland, which is the remainder of the origin of the Szekler people (military discipline), its tendency being a decreasing one, but still characteristic. It is also typical, but not in the first place the team, that is the supportive culture, the collaboration, team spirit, friendship, family relationships having priority. The existence of the team culture is extremely good and correct, and has to be maintained, but the performance culture is less typical for the organizations of 61

Szeklerland (and within it for employees), namely that we like each other and accept leadership, but this is not linked to the performance yield. Probably this is the reason for the relative fallback of the organizations of Szeklerland. Unfortunately the weakest culture is the adhocracy that is the exigency for development. The fact that we do not like to develop ourselves only intensifies the fallback, What does this mean? The team spirit is solid and the acceptance, respect for the leader is intense as well within the organizations. The collaboration of coworkers is regarded as good within the organization, but this rather positive image is not accompanied with the expected result, performance, the exigency for development within the organizations. This internal collaboration does not prevail in the interorganizational relationships. b. The evolution of the lifecycle of organizations in Szeklerland The present situation of the life course of organizations has been defined, beginning from the early age to death, in all its phases. Its result: the Transylvanian-Szekler organizations analyzed by the measuring model are still characteristically in the early age and the “come on” age. What does this mean? The organizations got over from the early age to the next “come on” age but they could not stabilize their status in this age due to the crisis of the past few years (market limit, capital limit), and the signs of sliding back to early age start to show. The organizations that got over the “come on” phase of life are working on the shift towards professionalism. They begin to realize that from the sole management they must switch to competence division and decentralization, implicating further experts in the management of the organization. This measurement demonstrated that the Transylvanian - Szekler organizations are very vulnerable, and the smallest unexpected market/human movement might shake the already accomplished lifecycle-situation. Many organizations set off to manhood, but they cannot reach that, or they cannot stay there, if the childhood diseases were serious and these diseases are still carried by the organization. c. The quality of the organizations of Szeklerland The effect of management on the organization, the organizational strategy, the quality of human resources management, the existence of financial resources, the shaping and quality of the internal processes of organizations, the satisfaction of purchaser and employee, the social and environmental effect of the organization and the results of the functioning of organization have all been examined. Its result: The social effect is the most solid in case of the measured organizations. 62

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This shows close relationship with the measurement results of the organizational culture. It is recommended to improve, develop: the management of the organization, the production/sales processes, their controlling and the factors serving the improvement of customers’ satisfaction. What does this mean? In the first place, the organizations are not always customer-oriented, and this can be observed in the results also. Many resources are slivered due to internal disorganization. If the internal relations (processes) are organized, more energy and strength is shifted to the achievement of the organizations’ real goals: the attainment of the customer’s satisfaction. d. The situation of leadership in Szeklerland We have taken a close look at the technical situation of management inside the organization, and more precisely at the identification and commitment to the organization, the planning, and the delegation, the deliverance of instructions, the two-way feedback about performance, the motivation, the team building, the team spirit and the long-term thinking. Result: The upwards communication (from subordinates to the management) is the weakest, moreover time management and delegation can also be developed. The identification with the organization is strong and the communication of weak performance to the employees. What does this mean? The management-technical knowledge is of no high standards. This is strongly related to the results measured at the situation of the organization lifecycle, the leaders deal with everything on their own, on a selftaught way. This should be changed with conscious development. The positive results perceived at the corporate culture, that is the leading by team spirit and the acceptance of the organization can be further developed through managementtechnical knowledge. The weakness at the level of time management is available at all levels, so this doesn’t cause any or little problems in everyday life. e. The evolution of the conflicts inside the organization The goal was to establish the potential of conflicts between the representatives of the management, which has covered the following aspects: the performance of the organization and its definition; the evaluation of the communication (and motivation); the appreciation; the troubleshooting and the fair hearing; the motivation – concern for the enhancement and support of development (delegation of responsibility, practicing insight into character, being a role model); the selection of the appropriate employees; the quality of the carried out work; the collaboration; the support of workplace friendships; planning and time management; the assignment of priorities; meeting the customer’s demands; the overall satisfaction and the factors that enhance performance. 63

Results: There has been a strong measurable difference between the way of thinking of the management and that of the employees. Some characteristic differences are the following: the manager considers the performance to be low; on the other hand the employees consider it to be good; the manager thinks the employees are “weak”, but the employees feel good and consider their performance to be good. If we don’t look at the performance, and only analyze the quality of the employees, then we can state that the staff is satisfied with itself but the managers are less satisfied with them. This, of course leads to conflicts. The appreciation of the customer satisfaction by managers and the staff is the same, leading to no conflicts, although the low results mean weak market performance. It is unfortunate that the management and the staff seem to agree in this area. What does this mean? The performance orientation is veiled by the mistakenly perceived team culture. Team culture can only be adopted if it is backed by real performance. Employees rarely stand up for each other or not at all, when it comes to poor performance. Since everybody needs their wages to the same extent, the expectations regarding the performance are not formulated in a due measure. The customer is still not placed in the focus of the organizations’ way of thinking! This statement is in accordance with the results measured at the corporate culture and organizational life cycle. The educational institutions have to prepare to cover the shortage of human resource demanded by the strongly developing points of the region, because on one hand they can serve the purposes of their region this way, and on the other hand this is the only way to provide the necessary knowledge for the people of the area to earn a living. At the same time, the organizations and their leaders have to take into account that organizations have a life cycle too, and those who don’t assign importance to development, will remain at a lower stage of the life cycle, making their organizations chanceless against continuously strengthening international competitors. Thus, the development from the human point of view is the most important challenge for Szeklerland. This view is supported by the fact that every organization employs people, and the people working there give the value add to the company. Added value is present only if the company employs qualified people. At the same time qualified people need professional leadership! For this reason the development of the organization has to happen together with development of the workforce, and the combined result of this can mean the ascension of the region. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1. Tibor Ambrus (2013): Vállalkozói műhelytitkok Erdélyben [Entrepreneurial secrets in Szeklerland] Publisher: Nemzeti közszolgálati és tankönyv kiadó, Budapest CONTACT Dr. László Geréb, MÜTF Educational Centre, Odorheiu Secuiesc, [email protected] Tibor Ambrus, MÜTF Educational Centre, Odorheiu Secuiesc, [email protected]

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HEGYI-KÉRI Ágnes26 DEINDUSTRIALIZATION OR REINDUSTRIALIZATION IN VISEGRAD COUNTRIES Abstract. Industrial development is important for developing and developed countries alike, since industry greatly contributes to economic development and the structure of employment. In Visegrad countries as a result of transformational recession the mono-structural economy has changed. The transformation process is not yet finished. My research question is: after the political system change, in the examined countries, where and how fast was the decreasing in the number of the employees in the manufacturing sector? Is it true that during the so-called Golden Ages on regional level productivity growth rate was higher in the manufacturing sector than in the service sector in Visegrad countries? 2. A question related to its labour market effects: did the employment rate increase in this region?

Theoretical introduction “...it is possible that the economy is doomed to years of stagnation.” (Baumol, 1979) Industrial development is important for developing and developed countries alike, since industry greatly contributes to economic development and the structure of employment. Industrial products may be responsible for the foreign trade balance, they generate innovation and stimulate the widening of the scope of the service sector (the spillover effect) (Botos, 2010). Enhanced industrial productivity and employment are also referred to as ‘industrialization’; the encyclopedia definition also implying the introduction of machine technology into the given country on a major scale. The Dictionary of Human Geography (2009) defines industrialization as follows: “It is a process in the course of which industrial activity becomes the dominant activity in the economy of a region or country.” (p. 380) In fact, the process is more complex than that, showing a close connection to theories of economic growth. Adam Smith regarded industrialization as being a natural part of economic growth. Developing countries may opt for one of the two strategies available in regards to their industrialization policies: they can encourage the secondary sector (more precisely, the manufacturing industry) to substitute imports by protecting the industrial sector with duties or by non-tariff means. In „This research was realized in the frames of TÁMOP 4.2.4. A/2-11-1-2012-0001 „National Excellence Program – Elaborating and operating an inland student and researcher personal support system convergence program” The project was subsidized by the European Union and co-financed by the European Social Fund.” 26

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the 50s and 60s the Western, developed World used this method to enhance the economic growth of Third World countries. Another option is a preference for export-oriented industrialization. The negative side effects of a sudden increase of the exports of any industry on other industries are usually referred to as ‘the Dutch disease’ (Corden, 1984, Fertő, 1999). The opposite process to industrialization is deindustrialization. Takács (2003) states that deindustrialization covers the decline, withering or failing of an industry. Saeger (1997) states that the most widely used indicator of deindustrialization is a declining number of employees in the manufacturing industry. Vidéki (2008) supports this when he claims that, despite industry being an indicator of technical progress, its significance is measured in close connection to the number of employees in industry (per regional unit, per thousand people, per number of persons in work). Abonyiné (2002) emphasizes that these indices do not indicate the level of advancement of industry but rather the process of industrialization. Taking Saeger (1997) as a basis, I summarizes below why experts prefer to use this indicator to quantify deindustrialization:  The proportion of employees in the manufacturing industry is a widely used indicator for measuring levels of industrialization and quantifying economic advancement.  It is the most obvious indicator of the scale of the manufacturing industry, which the general public is also greatly interested in.  It focuses on changes in the cost items of different sectors, in particular input factors.  Any decline in the amount of investment affects the employment rate of the manufacturing industry since it has relatively high investment needs. Number of employed persons

Tertiary sector

Secondary sector

Deindustrialisati on

Quaternary sector Primary sector

Time

Figure 11.1: The Fisher-Clark model Source: Edited by the author, based on the Fisher-Clark model Clark claims that the process of deindustrialization occurs at the intersection of industries. The Dictionary of Human Geography (2009) defines deindustrialization as follows: 67

“Deindustrialization is the permanent decline of industrial (in particular manufacturing industry) activity and capacity. These changes occur naturally as part of the economic cycle. However, when industrial production is joined by declining competitiveness and a drop in domestic and international demands, then deindustrialization represents underdevelopment besides a lower rate of employment and an imbalance of payments.” (p. 150) According to Fisher (1939) and Clark’s (1940) model about structural development, economic development goes hand in hand with ‘tertiarisation’; an increase in the amount of added value to services. It seems evident that the emergence of the tertiary sector is the result of economic development (Szalavetz, 2007). Debates have continued even until today between experts about the significance of the secondary and tertiary sectors. It is worth mentioning ‘Baumol’s disease’ here, according to which it is harder to achieve significant labor productivity increases in the tertiary sector compared to the production sectors due to its sector-specific characteristics (Baumol, 1967). However, Bosworth and Triplett (2003) later refuted this statement in the USA by observing that the productivity of services has increased at the same pace in most of the tertiary sector industries of the USA as it has in the manufacturing industry. In East Central European countries, the process is closely connected to the political changeover period when employment rates in industry spectacularly dropped. In Western European states the process started in the 60s and the 70s. In respect to the model it is also a question what the share of the tertiary sector will be in countries which are experiencing transformation recession (such as Western European states), and to what extent industrial employment will decline. I attempts to provide answers to these questions by considering figures and processes of the past 14 years, so called Golden Ages. Since the process is still in progress, further longitudinal examination is needed. Parallel with deindustrialization there is an ongoing process of tertiarisation (i.e. the growing dominance of the tertiary sector) (Barta et al., 2008), a detailed discussion of which was first started in the United Kingdom. Singh (1977), who was among the first to seek to define correlations between deindustrialization and structural imbalance, claims that deindustrialization occurs when the manufacturing industry is unable to satisfy either domestic demands or create exports to the extent that it can satisfy the full employment rate needs of imports (at ‘reasonable’ exchange rates). He believes deindustrialization should be defined as being a consequence of structural imbalance, rather than its cause. It is possible to make a distinction between relative and absolute declines in industry. In the case of relative decline, other sectors have a greater rate of increase than the industrial sector (i.e. the proportion of industry to total employment or to GDP declines). Absolute declines occur when the output level, the employment rate, investments and profit continuously drop year by year. When interpreting the 68

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term Rowthorn and Wells (1987) distinguish between negative and positive deindustrialization, the latter they define as follows: “...sustainable economic growth results in full employment and highly developed economy. This occurs when the productivity of manufacturing industry increases at a declining output level and employment rate. However, lower employment level will not lead to unemployment, since there are a sufficient number of new jobs created in the tertiary sector at the same time. Interestingly, this type of deindustrialization is the sign of a successful economy.” (Rowthorn and Wells, 1987, p.5) As opposed to this, the authors claim that a deindustrialization has negative effects when jobs lost in industry are not substituted for by the tertiary sector and therefore unemployment increases. They provide a comprehensive definition of the concept in the same work, as follows: “Exports of the given country will shift from the dominance of industry to that of services, which will also induce a transfer of resources to other industries.” Rowthorn and Ramaswamy (1999) came to the surprising conclusion that between 1963 and 1994 in 18 OECD states the productivity rate increased more quickly in the manufacturing industry than in the tertiary sector, and this was responsible for deindustrialization. Based on this they argue that deindustrialization is a natural consequence of developed economies. Later research started to focus on investigating the causes. When causes of deindustrialization are explored it is important to refer to the work of Rowthorn and Coutts (2006), besides the factor of structural imbalance mentioned before. After examining the role of trade in deindustrialization these authors concluded that there was a connection between deindustrialization and trade in the case of less developed economies. However, endogenous factors (like increasing productivity and declining consumption) have much greater significance. As a summary of the literature, the following explanations for deindustrialization are put forward:  As a result of widening corporate specialization needs, manufacturing industry corporations cut down on their employee headcount by outsourcing certain activities. However, the term ‘lower numbers’ is relevant only in a statistical sense; in fact the employees who are dismissed will be employed in the tertiary sector.  Lower relative prices in the manufacturing industry will cause a decline in the manufacturing industry compared to total consumption.  Higher productivity rates compared to the tertiary sector will imply less growth in employment in the manufacturing industry.  In the case of developed economies, trade may have a negative impact on the employment rates of the manufacturing industry, bringing forth an increased level of competitive constraints; labor intensive activities will decline due to the pressure of imports.

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The Visegrad Four – deindustrialization or reindustrialization?! One of the key long-term features developing countries share is a reduction in the number of employees in industry in the favor of the tertiary sector. The share of the manufacturing industry in relation to GDP has declined during the past 25 years across the whole of the EU, except for Finland, Ireland and Sweden. The term ‘developed countries’ is often identified with the term ‘industrial countries’, which is not always correct (Vidéki, 2008). Table 2.: Changes in the number of employees in the processing industry between 2000 and 2007 (%) Changes in the number of Changes in the number employees in the of employees in the Country manufacturing industry Country manufacturing between 2000 and 2007 industry between 2000 (%) and 2007 (%) Estonia 110,491 Poland 99,96731 Luxembourg 108,435 Spain 98,09336 Latvia 105,9398 Germany 95,92457 Lithuania 103,2244 Italy 95,48189 Slovakia 103,1705 Finland 94,87756 Hungary 102,3737 Belgium 90,30417 Sweden 101,8391 France 89,43026 Austria 101,4786 Ireland 87,44921 Cyprus 101,1037 Portugal 87,29336 Czech 100,4312 Denmark 86,34836 Republic Netherlands 84,93469 Romania 82,16829 United 74,92916 Kingdom Source: Edited by the author based on Eurostat data To put it crudely, the Visegrad countries became subjects of an economic experiment when they changed ‘planned’ economies for market economies. The transition has clearly induced major changes, both on a social and an economic level. Botos (2010) notes that the problems which are occurring as a result of the transformation affect all areas of national economies, yet it is industry that has had to face the most pressing and profound transformation. During the transitional period a number of factors influenced industrial policy. We list the most essential ones here, following Botos (2010):

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 Lack of previous experience – The Visegrad countries had to handle industrial issues (monostructure, constraints with industrialization, facing new market needs, out-of-date technology) with no previous experience, in an economic environment of bankruptcy.  Time factors – Since changes affected the entire economy it is difficult to state when the transition period finished (if it has finished at all). Moreover, the time span of government intervention is also greatly varied.  Inertia factors – Lux (2009) connects path dependency to the crisis apparent with industrial regions. In a traditional sense, path dependency means that the scope of decisions possible at a given moment cannot be independent of the history of the given region. In many cases circumstances which affect a present decision act as ‘inertia’ in certain regions, hindering development. Following the political transition, countries which face similar challenges followed different industrial development paths during the past 20 years. In the following section I present details about the industrial processes of the Visegrad countries with the help of key indices. Whenever the economic structure of a country is examined, it is the performance of the country and its medium-term growth prospects about which I receive valuable information. By examining the secondary sector, it is obvious that there are differences between the countries considered. Poland has approximately 30% of the working population employed in industry (this includes the construction industry, electricity, gas and water provision ‘industries’), while the Czech Republic and Slovakia both have 36%. When changes in the number of industrial employees during the period of 1992-2009 are considered, there are a number of similarities and also differences. The process of deindustrialization of the 90s was most characteristic of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where industry lost 10% of its employees in the period 1994-2000, which amounts to 225 thousand people in the former, and 61 thousand in the latter case (Kuttor, 2010). However, following this period significant industrialization began, especially in Slovakia, as a result of which the 2007 level of employment exceeded that of 1994 by 93 thousand people in Slovakia, and approached this (97 thousand people) in the Czech Republic. Poland is unique in both in terms of its labor mobility between sectors and the tendency to actualize these opportunities for mobility. The number of industrial jobs did not change considerably in the 90s (until 1998), showing only a slight surplus (130 thousand people). However, this changed when a significant decline occurred in the number of industry employees (976 thousand) up until 2003, followed by a sharp rise (adding 841 thousand people) in 4 years. Hungary witnessed considerably different trends; a decline in the number of employees in the secondary sector occurred earlier (in the second half of the 90s), with 51 thousand people leaving the sector by 1996. Following this period a significant increase occurred up till 2001 (138 thousand people), which then dropped again by 40 thousand people by 2007. 71

In 2009 Poland had the lowest number of industrial employees among the countries examined. It had the lowest figures in 2002, 5 percentage points behind Hungary, 6 behind Slovakia and almost 10 percentage points behind the Czech Republic. However, since 2002 Poland has seen steady growth of people employed in industry, which, as Rachwał (2011) claims must be partly due to the uneven registration method of the Polish employment service, and to a greater extent due to the country’s EU accession and the alteration of the internal structure of its industry. Deindustrialization or reindustrialization on regional level Due to the increase in productivity, labor force is released in the manufacturing sector, and because of the significant - more intensive than in the services sector – competition, the prices increase much more moderately than in the service sector. In parallel, demand represents more and more weight in the structure of services, and this allows the service sector to absorb some of the released manufacturing workforce (Szalavetz, 2008). Remember Engel’s law, according to which if the real income increases, the demand will shift towards the superior, but dispensable goods; Adam Smith and later also Marx stated, that the output of the service sector was mainly suitable for luxury consumption, but basically useless and dispensable. Baumol also states why the service sector cannot achieve significant productivity gains:  the services are labor-intensive,  this sector's workforce grows continuously and fast,  replacement of labor to capital is less feasible,  the costs are easily passed on to the consumers. Productivity growth is reduced by the fact, that the price elasticity of demand is much lower for services than for manufactured goods, and the income elasticity of demand is higher for services, than for manufactured goods. Expressive, that it is not uncommon in the U.S., if someone has a plasma television, and no health insurance. Baumol, in his book "The General Theory of Employement, Interest and Money"27, has rejected the idea that the economy always seeks a high level of employment. It has been replaced with this statement: “... it is possible that the economy is doomed to years of stagnation." The resulting “cost disease” may lead stagnant sectors to experience above-average price increases, declining quality, and financial pressures. They argued that technologically stagnant sectors experience above average cost and price increase, take a rising share of national output, and slow aggregate productivity growth. Baumol et al. applied these ideas to several 27

Erdős Tibor characterized it as the probably most significant book of the 20th century in economics

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sectors, including higher education, cities, health care and hospitals, the performing arts, handicrafts, haute cuisine, custom clothing, and stately houses. Later in the United States Bosworth and Triplett (2006) has contradicted this statement, as in most service sectors of the United States the rate of productivity growth of services reached the same extent as productivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Oulton (1999) examined the validity of Baumol’s claims, and set up another model, in which services (only) play input-production role. Oulton showed that if the productivity of these increase, the workforce flow to the service sector will not adversely affect growth. So the first question in my research was: in which sector in the Visegrad countries that had undergone transformation recession was the productivity growth the fastest. My examinations are based on the OECD regional database. The examined period was 2000-2007, the so called Golden Ages. They joined the EU during this period. However, the effects of the economic crisis had not yet been noticeable. The formula is the dynamic version of the basic formula of the labor productivity:

Equation 1: Calculation of Productivity where i = sectors of industry (i = 1, ..., m), P = labor productivity, Q = value added and N = labor input (number of employees). In the following table the top 10 and last 10 regions are listed ranked by the change in the manufacturing productivity. Find the complete table in the Annex. In each studied region the productivity of manufacturing industry has increased. As of the other sectors, the productivity growth was highest in the agriculture. However, this increase in productivity was linked (with one exception) to the regions with high industrial productivity. The correlation coefficient between agricultural and manufacturing productivity (r = 0.628) is medium strong. Examining the other sectors, the coefficients are as follows: cover wholesale (r = 0.6014); public administration (r = 0.6382), construction (r = 0.4509) and financial intermediation (r = 0.2089). The regression tests did not show a remarkable correlation. However, the correlation calculations have also shown that productivity growth in the industry "pulled" the agriculture, trade and the public sector, but had no impact on the financial sector. Table 3: Manufacturing

TOP Region 10 1. (PL) Podlaskie 2. (HU)

productivity changes between 2000-2007, on regional level Last Manufacturing Region Manufacturing 10 2.3135 26. (PL)Warminsko1.4551 Mazurskie 2.2645 27. (SK) Bratislav Kraj 1.4136 73

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Northern Great Plains (PL) Wielkopolskie (PL) Opolskie (PL) Lubuskie

2.2430

28.

(CZ) Stredni Morava

1.4015

2.0163 2.0144

29. 30.

(CZ) Jihovyched (HU) Central Hungary (PL) Lodzkie

1.3922 1.3854

(PL) 1.9561 31. Pomorskie (HU Northern 1.8796 32. (PL) Slaskie Hungary (HU) Western 1.8002 33. (CZ) Stredni Cechy Transdanubia (HU) 1.7505 34. (CZ) Southern Moravskoslezko Transdanubia (SK) Zapadne 1.7307 35. (PL) Slovensko Zachodniopomorskie Source: Edited by the author based on own calculation

1.3764 1.3642 1.3262 1.3046 1.2732

In the following, I used the shift-share analysis to investigate whether the Baumol– effect caused any changes in the sector structure of employment in certain regions in the Visegrad countries between 2000-2007. The change in the regional economic structure was measured using the number of employees. The shift-share analysis made this measurement possible, which was first used by Perloff et al. (1960). Since then, this method has also been included in most of the regional research handbooks (Sikos, 1984, ELTE Department of Regional Geography, 2005). Many people have used this method to analyze the changes in employment structure, both macro and regional (county) level (Csugány - Máté, 2009; Lőcsei 2004). Similar international studies were done by Batóg-Batóg (2006) and Jonuschat-Knoll (2008) in Czech regions, examining different time frames. It was calculated for each country whether the expansion in employment was faster or slower than the average of the Visegrad Four (Si), which was broken down into two, above-mentioned local (Sr) and structural (Sa) factors. All three factors can adopt positive or negative values, and the studied countries can be grouped accordingly (highlighting that local or structural factors dominated the expansion in employment). Positive Sa means, that the rate of employment increased more than the avarage of the Visegrad Four. In this case, we can talk about a positive structural change and competitive advantage. When Sr is positive, infrastructure, education, migration and demographic trends (local factors) have a positive impact on employment growth. In the following, I examine the influencing role of the various factors in the different regions. 74

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The individual regions were divided into the following groups. • 1: Positive structural and positive local factor, a higher than average employment growth. • 2: Positive structural and negative local factor, a higher than average employment growth. • 3: Negative structural and positive local factor, a higher than average employment growth. • 4: Positive structural and negative local factor, a below-average employment growth. • 5: Negative structural and positive local factor, a below-average employment growth. • 6: Negative structural and negative local factor, a below-average employment growth. Examining the regional level in Hungary, it can be concluded, that geographical location only had positive impact on employment expansion in the Central Hungarian Region. This also means that all the other regions could not benefit from their existing geopolitical assets. In Hungary, the sectoral influences had a greater role in the expansion of employment. Similar effects may be observed in the Czech Republic too; in Moravskoslezské local region the structural effects also had a positive impact on expansion. In three regions (Severozápad, Stredni Cechy, Střední Morava) employment increased proportionally. The structural factor was positive. In Slovakia, the effects of local factor could be observed in two, geographically advantaged regions (Region Bratislavský, Východné Slovensko). It is also noteworthy, that the structural effect was characteristic in the Western Slovakian region. In Poland, six regions were able to live with the advantages of local and structural changes (Pomorskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Dolnoslaskie, Lubuskie, Slaskie, Mazowieckie). Table 4.: Result of the shift-share analysis SA + SA SR (1) (3) + (+)Moravskoslezsko (CZ) (+)Central Hungary (HU) (+)Pomorskie (PL) (+)Lódzkie (PL) (+)Warminsko-Mazurskie (PL) (5) (-)Praha (CZ) (+)Dolnoslaskie (PL) (-)Severozápad (CZ) (+)Slaskie (PL) (-)Bratislavský kraj (SK) (+)Mazowieckie (PL) (-)Východné Slovensko (SK) (-)Zachodniopomorskie (PL)

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SR (2) (+)Severozápad (CZ) (+)Strední Cechy (CZ) (+)Strední Morava (CZ) (+)Central Transdanubia (HU) (+)Northern Great Plains (HU) (+)Západné Slovensko (SK) (+)Podkarpackie (PL) (+)Swietokrzyskie (PL) (4) (-)Western Transdanubia (HU) (-)Lubelskie (PL)

(6) (-)Jihozápad (CZ) (-)Severovýchod (CZ) (-)Jihovýchod (CZ) (-)Southern Transdanubia (HU) (-)Northern Hungary (HU) (-)Southern Great Plain (HU) (-)Stredné Slovensko(SK) (-)Malopolskie (PL) (-)Podlaskie (PL) (-)Wielkopolskie (PL) (-)Opolskie (PL) (-)Kujawsko-Pomorskie (PL) Source: Edited by the author based on own calculation

I compared the results of the shift-share analysis to the Baumol hypothesis. I was wondering, that in regions with an increase in the extent of employment, what role the fact played that productivity increased more in the manufacturing sector than in the service sector. In regions, where the employment decreased, the productivity in manufacturing was typically increased more than in the studied sectors. If I compare the ratios, it can be observed, that the decrease in employment is caused by the higher productivity growth in the service sector. Summary Industrial development must be of key importance for both developing and developed countries since industry has a key role in economic development and employment structure. In the first part of this essay I provided a brief summary of the theoretical background of industry-related processes, I discussed the connection that exists between economic growth and industry. These processes lead to the fact that deindustrialization and reindustrialization currently coexist within the European Union and the Visegrad countries both on national and regional level. I also discussed how countries of the Visegrad Group, facing similar issues in the post-transition period, have followed different industrial development paths in the past 20 years. According to Baumol the cost disease means that in the service sector, because of its peculiarities, it is less possible to reach significant productivity growth, than in the production sectors (Baumol 1967). In each studied region, manufacturing productivity has increased between 2000-2007. The correlation calculations suggest that productivity growth in the industry "pulls" the agriculture, trade and the public sector, however, has no impact on the financial sector. In these regions further studies are needed to determine whether it was indeed the greater growth of the service sector productivity that slowed down economic growth, and what impact this had on employment. In the second half of 76

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the study, I compared the results of the shift-share analysis to the Baumol hypothesis. In regions where the number of employees decreased the productivity rate typically increased at higher extent in the manufacturing industry than in the studied sectors.

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REFERENCES J. Abonyiné Palotás (2002): Az általános iparföldrajz alapjai. (The general industry on a geographical basis) pp. 127-164. In.: Tóth J. (szerk.): Általnos társadalomföldrajz I. Dialóg Campus Kiadó, Budapest-PÈcs. 484. p. Barta Gy.- Czirfusz M.-Kukely Gy.: Újraiparosodás a nagyvilágban és Magyarországon. (Re-industrialization in the World and Hungary) Tér és Társadalom, 2008. 4. pp. 1-21. Batóg B., Batóg J. (2007): Shift-Share Analysis of Employment growth within the EU countries in 1999–2005. Available at www.mikro.univ.szczecin.pl/bp/index.php?a=h68f3 (Quoted 12. 5. 2013.) Baumol W. (1967): Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The anatomy of urban crisis, American Economic Association American Economic Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jun., 1967), pp. 415-426 Botos B. (2010): Az iparpolitika metamorfózisa. (The metamorphosis of industrial policy) L’Harmattan kiadó, Zsigmond Király Főiskola. 313. pp. Clark, Colin (1940): The Conditions of Economic Progress. London: MacMillan & Co. Corden, W. M. (1984): Booming Sector and Dutch Disease Economics: Survey and Consolidation. Oxford Economic Papers, 36. évf. 359-380. o. Fertő I. (1999): A Európai Unió közös agrárpolitikájának gazdaságtana I. Közgazdasági Szemle, XLVI. évf., 1999. június (709–733. o.) Gregor, D. - Johnston R. - Pratt G. - Watts M. - Whatmore S. (2009):The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th Edition ISBN: 978-1-4051-3288-6 1072 pages April 2009, ©2009, Wiley-Blackwell Jonuschat H. and Knoll M. (2008): Regional transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe. Contributions of the TRANSFOR(U)M network members. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Bibliothek. download: http://dnb.ddb.de. 2014.02.12 Kuttor D. (2010): Changing spatial economic structure in East Central EuropeI, p. 73-88; in: Studia Oeconomica Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Volume 5 Issue 3, ISSN 2065-9644, 2010. Lőcsei H. (2004) A foglalkoztatás ágazati és regionális dimenzióinak kapcsolata az ezredvégi Magyarországon. in: Nemes Nagy J. (szerk.): Térségi és települési növekedési pályák Magyarországon. (Regionális Tudományi Tanulmányok 9.) ELTE Regionális Földrajzi Tanszék – MTA-ELTE Regionális Tudományi Kutatócsoport, Budapest, pp. 43-58. Lux G. (2009): Az ipar hagyományos terei: a régi ipari térségek. (The industry standard spaces of the old industrial regions) In: Tér és Társadalom. 23.évf. 2009/4. 45-60 p.

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Oulton, N.(1999): Must the Growth Rate Decline? Baumol's Unbalanced Growth Revisited," London: Bank of England, 1999, 1-52. Perloff, H.S., E.S. Dunn, Jr., E.E. Lampard and R.F. Muth (1960): Regions, Resources and Economic Growth, Part III. Johns Hopkins. Rachwał, T. (2011): Transformations of the Employment Structure as an Expression of theTransformation of Polish Industry Against the Background of the European Union.Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 15 / 2011, pp. 5-25 Rowthorn, R. and Ramaswamy (1999): Growth, Trade and Deindustrialisation, IMF Staff Papers 46.1 18-4. Rowthorn, R. and Wells J. (1987): Deindustrialisation and Foreign Trade, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Rowthorn, R. and Coutts K. (2006): Deindustrialisation and the Balance of Payments in Advanced Countries”, updated version of a paper published in Cambridge Journal of Economics September 2004. Saeger, S. (1997): Globalization and Deindustrialization: Myth and Reality in the OECD. Weltwirtschaftliches Archly~Review of World Economics 133 (4): 579607. Singh, A (1977): UK Industry and the World Economy: A Case of Deindustrialisation, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1.2 113-36. Sikos T. (editor) (1984): Matematikai és statisztikai módszerek alkalmazási lehetőségei a területi kutatásokban. Földrajzi Tanulmányok, 19. szám, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. Csugány J. – Máté D. (2013): A munkatermelékenységben bekövetkezett szektorális változások technológia-intenzív megközelítésben. In.: TERÜLETI STATISZTIKA, 2013, 53(4): pp.340–353. Szalavetz A. (2007) Műszaki fejlődés és tőkeintenzitás (Technical progress and capital intensity) In.: Közgazdasági Szemle, LIV. évf., 2007. február 184–198. p. Szalavetz A. (2008): A szolgáltatási szektor és a gazdasági fejlődés.( The service sector and economic development.) Közgazdasági Szemle, LV. évf., 2008. június (503–521. o.) Takács Z. (2003): The phenomenon of industrial degradation of some foreign examples in North Hungary's economic situation from 1990 to 2001. Szerk.: Tóth I. János, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara Gazdaság- és Vállalkozáselemzési Intézet, Bp., 2003. 13-26 p. Triplett, J. E.–Bosworth, B. P. (2006): „Baumol’s disease” has been cured: IT and multifactor productivity in us services industries. Megjelent: Jansen D. W. (edit.): The new economy and beyond, past, present and future. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Vidéki I. (editor) (2008): Fejezetek ipar- és közlekedésföldrajzból. ELTE Eötvös Kiadó, 2008. 311 oldal

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CONTACT Ágnes HEGYI-KÉRI PhD candidate University of Miskolc Institute of World- and Regional Economics [email protected]

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ILYES Ferenc IS THERE A NEED FOR COOPERATIVES IN THE FUTURE? Keywords: cooperation, community, network, cooperatives

Through history, cooperatives were those forms of community cooperation, which offered the economic background for the development of the individual in society. Usually, they were established when the individual could not cope alone, or when the ties in society became loose. There have been a number of different forms of cooperatives in the last 150 years, which have had quite varied life cycles: some of them being successful, others being considered a failure. Cooperation means holding together, mutual backing, in certain situations it means help to its participants. Some cultures have been luckier, as they were able to instill cooperation in the veins of their members. Through history it has been proved several times that cooperation meant success, although in some cases there was a need for outside forces like solution for war conflicts, natural disasters, economic world crisis in order to enhance cooperation. Big problems of mankind have always been solved with the help of cooperation, giving people the feeling of success. „The movement of cooperatives has intertvined with the economical and cultural life of the village, as the practical establishment of the village development would have faced obstacles without the organization of cooperatives. This is why pooling the smaller economical forces was urged by all means and methods, as only through organizing cooperation was possible for the farmer to be able to produce cheaper, to obtain a higher income, and thus rising his ethical level as well. This is how the cooperatives were able to open such resources, which until then had been unachievable for individual farmers.” (Géró, 2009) Putting together the principles of Rochdale cooperatives by Owen in 1844 is considered to be the birth of cooperatives. Another wording of this is „…the movement of cooperatives is the result of capitalist development. Cooperation were created as protection against the process of concentration and centralization of capital, the cruel victimization of small economical units by larger ones; as a 81

way to make smaller enterprises more competitive and to treat social problems. ”(Gyimesi 1990).28 When setting up the Rochdale cooperative 7 underlying principles were defined. They are the following:  the principle of open membership  the principle of democratic management  allocation on the basis of purchase  the principle of limited interest on invested capital  political and religious neutrality  sale for cash  promotion of cooperative training The definition of cooperation according to Ferenc Erdei (1979): „The cooperative is such a common enterprise of households and individual -and family run plants, which is based on the work of its members; or on the members’ household needs; or it is built on the ongoing production of the farms; it works out the collective commercial or producing organization of the members’ commercial activities in the common plant; and that the members will benefit from the income of the cooperative plant on the basis of their involvement, share and use of common plant. (Nagyné-Orlovits, 2007) Several cooperations have been set up during history, which were always characterized by the typical features of that place or arising problem. So, the following types can be listed: consumer, customer, credit cooperatives, but also school and other types of cooperatives, with specific characteristics have been established. The success of Mondragon, the Danish model, or of the Swiss cooperative models, are mentioned as examples in the specific literature. In Hungary and in Transylvania the Ant Cooperative has taken its share in the increment of the rural Hungarian families and in considering husbandry. There are primary or secondary cooperatives considering the level of organization of cooperatives. The primary cooperatives are partnerships of private people, while the secondary ones can be established among legal entities as well.

28

Géró Imre: „A fogyasztási szövetkezetek új versenykörnyezetben” (Phd

értekezés), PTE, 2009

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Considering the aspect of the sector cooperatives can be agricultural, artisan, commercial, service cooperatives (credit, catering, etc.) The „kolhoz” (Bolshevik institution) system introduced by the communist system grouped the population of Mid-Eastern Europe into productive cooperatives, abusing those principles which were originally defined by Rockdale. The real sin was committed against the thoughts of cooperations of people living in MidEastern Europe. Cooperation, however, as an economical force, has been developing in societies of Western Europe, where besides consumers and producers processors, retailers and wholesalers cooperate in order to achieve significant economical advantages. These processors and the large marketplaces assured a higher income for its members. In the first part of the twentieth century most of the organizing tasks were fulfilled by the church, as well as several educational institutions. The intellectuals, the forerunners of the community approach, recognized the advantages of this system very early. In most of the cases cooperation was developed in urban environment, and its rural equivalent was developed as supplier production cooperative. The really successful cooperatives outgrew the market of their own countries and became international, forming important marketplaces for themselves. The globalization processes were beneficial for those cooperatives, which were economically stable and could cope with the expectations of the modern age. A significant part of these have broken up or taken up other forms of organization. In the distribution channel the power relations shift, power and control belong to those tradespeople who are endowed with the logistical background, who are today’s final salesmen, who reign over the relationship with customers. The newly appearing form represents the approach of everything at the same place, and everything for comfort. The exclusive relationship with customers, producers in a subordinate position helps emerge a new type of customer, the shopping addicted customer, whose simple everyday deeds are influenced by outside factors. This is why the marketing personnel is constantly bombarding them, thus boosting desire towards experiencing and comfort. As a result of this, in order to keep up this lifestyle the addicted customer applies for long term credits, the duration of which coincides with the active period of the applicant’s lifetime. Another negative result is the change in people’s attitude towards work and creativity, as once it is so easy to get it, why bother with it. People have talked

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themselves out of individual solutions. The negative effects of this on our society are drastic: broken up families and the disappearance of work as civil value. As opposed to this economic and social world development a subculture of conscious customers emerged, who appreciates those social values along which the life of a community can be organized in a reasonable way. However the major problem of this segment seems to be the lack of organization. Global dimensions of cooperation in numbers (EURICSE, 2012)29: According to a report of the United Nations (1994) all around the world there are 3 billion people whose lifestyle is influenced in any way by being connected to a cooperative, and there are three times more cooperative members than retailers and shareholders. In Europe processing agricultural products belongs to agricultural cooperatives to an extent of 60%, while this ratio is 50% in case of presence on the raw material market. The same numbers in the United States of America are 28% and 26%. (Valentinov et al., 2012). Worldwide there are 53,000 cooperatives and credit cooperatives of which 4,200 in Europe owning 63,000 branches. The European credit cooperative has 50 million members, 780,000 employees and it is the proud owner of 20% of the banking market (V. Zamagni, 2012). There are 3,200 marketing cooperatives in Europe, with 400,000 employees, 29 million members, and its annual turnover is 73 billion Euros. The insurance cooperatives have played an important role on the insurance market. According to data coming from 2008 these cooperatives led 44% of the insurance market in Germany, 39% in France, 38% in Japan and 30% in The United States of America and Canada. (V. Zamagni, 2012). Between 1998 and 2008 14,000 cooperatives were set up in Spain, 75% of which offered workplaces. (Diaz-Foncea, 2012) Cooperatives in Romania The number of cooperatives in Romania has constantly declined after the year 1990, due to economic and social reasons. However, they have fulfilled an important role in the economic life of the country in the past 20 years. While 4.73% of employees were working at cooperatives in 1992, this number dropped to 1% by 2009. 29

http://www.euricse.eu/sites/euricse.eu/files/venice_romanian_0.pdf, letöltés:2014-02-18

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Changes in the number of primary and secondary cooperatives between 2000 and 2009 in Romania Tabel.1 Number of units Small-scale cooperatives Small-scale cooperatives ’union Consumer cooperatives FEDERALCOOP CENTROCOOP Primary cooperatives altogether Secondary cooperatives altogether

2000 2005 2007 800 771 799 1 31 874 941 927 30 32 30 31 41 1674 1712 1726 64 102

2008 819 32 922 28 36 1741 96

2009 788 32 894 28 42 1682 102

Source: INS, 201130

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http://www.revistacalitateavietii.ro/2011/CV-4-2011/05.pdf, download: 18 February 2014

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Figure 1. Division by counties of consumer and small-scale cooperatives in Romania in 2009, Source: INS, 2011 The regional repartition of consumer cooperatives shows an interesting picture. Most of the cooperatives are situated in Transylvania, Banat, Partium and Northern Moldavia. In Szeklerland it is Hargita county which is the leader in number of cooperatives, fact, which is due to low number of inhabitants of its settlements, and the windup of cooperatives after the revolution was not characteristic of this county. While all around the world this form of organization is the solution for economic and social problems, in Romania this is present only at the level of thoughts, owing to the negative experience, loss of trust in community values, and economical hopelessness. New types of cooperatives around the world: Specialists of cooperatives agree, in today’s economical and social environment cooperatives only have a chance to survive if they can change according to the situations occurring in different communities. The legal regulation of these different forms differs from country to country. 1. Social cooperatives This form of cooperation is typical of those communities where the number of unemployment is very high. Social cooperatives are established by the government, its aim being besides the amelioration of unemployment the recovery of human dignity and soothing the problems of cost of living. The main drawback of this is that as the financial backing stops coming, these organizations stop functioning. 2. School cooperatives The objective of this type of cooperation is the usage of students ’workforce. It is flexible following students’ lifestyle. They offer seasonal jobs, and are set up by schools or other educational centers in order to help students find their place in the community and earn a living. 3. Promoting cooperatives Mainly, these are cooperatives set up in order to establish processors, the objective of which is the production of competitive products even by those small-scale producers who otherwise would not have the chance to finance such production capacities. A good example of this kind of cooperative were the Danish slaughterhouses. The small-scale farmers set up slaughterhouses together to achieve a more efficient running of the business.

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Another nice example is the fruit processing program in Szeklerland, where a fruit processing workshop was set up serving as an example to other similar initiatives in the region. 4. Cluster cooperatives Clusters and cooperatives are those forms of organizations which are very similar concerning the founding principles. The only difference is that the cluster is a loose form of cooperation, having the objective of building trust among its members. 5. Marketing cooperatives Its main objective is to control the last link of the channel of distribution, and to ensure the possibility of getting to the market for its participants, and in some cases ensuring existence. New scenes and instruments for cooperatives For people of the modern era the virtual world has become very important. The basis of this virtual world is the different networks, which if needed are able to transfer up-to-date information, information, which represents greater power to its beholder than capital could. The role of certain database has been overestimated; active organizing activity cannot be imagined without the help of communication devices. The use of different social networks have both benefits and disadvantages, but their existence and usefulness cannot be questioned either. While only a few years ago these devices were considered to be tools of entertainment for the young these days they have become accepted forms of communication for the older generation as well. Apart from being used for keeping in touch, it is also being used for organizing exchange activities, kind of micro exchange offices have come into being. Customer decision making has become very fast, making it possible to get to know other people’s experiences in the nick of time. Summary Cooperation is one of the defining forms of organization in the world, having the advantage of accepting a great number of members and making them work together. In the ex socialist countries people are very suspicious about it, but there are new forms of it, which are able to answer those challenges of environment, which define the life of today’s people. 87

REFERENCES I. II. III. IV.

Imre Géró: „A fogyasztási szövetkezetek új versenykörnyezetben” “Consumption Cooperatives in New Competitive Environment” (Phd dissertation), PTE, 2009 http://www.revistacalitateavietii.ro/2011/CV-4-2011/05.pdf,download: 18 February 2014 http://www.euricse.eu/sites/euricse.eu/files/venice_romanian_0.pdf, download: 18 February 2014 Kinga Nagyné Pércsi - Zsolt Orlovits, Szövetkezeti Alapismeretek “Basics of Cooperatives”, Manuscript, Gödöllő, 2007

CONTACT ILYES Ferenc, MÜTF [email protected]

Education

Center-

Odorheiu

Secuiesc,

e-mail :

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KOLEV Svilen GAPS AND WEAKNESSES IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BULGARIAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: LESSONS LEARNED

Abstract. The decision making process in the implementation of the Bulgarian Rural Development Program is one of the important things of the rural policy in Bulgaria and is of great importance for the development of agriculture. Bulgarian agriculture has completed two planning periods related to use of EU funds since 2006 and accumulated experience about gaps and weaknesses at different levels. Thus, analyzing them and the factors that have impact the decision making process, will give clues and proposals for the next program period 2014-2020. The paper aims to analyze the factors that influence on the decision making process and how this reflect to the rural areas in Bulgaria. The paper focuses on the synergies between decision making process for different measures and programs, and demand for the final positive output for the country as a whole in a given area and the influence of different measures. The analysis is emphasized on several specific measures of the Rural Development Program in Bulgaria. The analysis is based on an official data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, State Fund Agriculture, National Statistical Institute; Mid-term evaluation on the implementation of the Rural Development Programme 20072013 in the Republic of Bulgaria, surveys conducted by farm organizations and independents institutes.

Keywords: decision-making process, efficiency, Rural Development Programme, Bulgaria JEL codes: Q10, Q140, Q18 1.INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors of impact on the implementation and functioning of policies of agriculture and the decision making process in the implementation of EU criteria, set in the Bulgarian Rural Development Program. The implementation of a successful policy requires detailed preliminary analysis at micro and macro levels, and analysis of the available results of the recent years, in order to formulate tools (priorities, measures) that should be used in the next programming period. The process of preparation of key documents at national level for the implementation of EU policies in the field of agricultural sector for the period 89

2014-2020 continues in 2014. This calls for ex-ante analysis to determine the gaps and weaknesses to be avoided for the next period of development of the sector by 2020 and set the budget framework for the country, based on the financial framework of EU. This report analyzes the weaknesses and gaps in the prioritization and utilization of funds under the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 in Bulgaria. The method of management analysis, used at the level of organization for the recent four years, takes into account upward and downward trends in practical terms. The report is aimed towards giving relevant information for planning and decisionmaking process, based on accumulated recommendations and built administrative and managerial experience during implementation of the Rural Development Program (RDP) 2007-2013. The pre-accession program SAPARD terminated in 2006 and immediately after that started the implementation of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007-2013. It is important to be mentioned that at the start of the new program period, the omissions and "bottlenecks" of the pre-accession period haven’t been considered. In general the working procedures and rules were mechanically transferred, and human resources from the old program assigned to the new one without making the necessary adjustments and improvements. This caused some loss of funds and loss of profit from the state regarding to agricultural subsidy beneficiaries, it also reflects on the state budget and on the actors on the market of services. From a management perspective, evaluation and analyze of the "bottlenecks ", fixing them and avoiding them at the next programming period as needless and even dangerous for the implementation of the new programming period 2014 and 2020, is more than necessary. The purpose of this report is to examine and analyze the manner of design, implementation and evaluation of the RDP, pointing out the weaknesses and making suggestions for overcoming them. The report focuses on the activities of the institution that administrates the RDP. For this means a practical approach for monitoring inside and outside of the system from several different perspectives and at different levels within the organization and outside the organization, aims to answer why the application of a certain model makes the system work, and in application of a similar one, the system does not work. Why in implementation of SAPARD program the structure was one of the most successful in Eastern Europe and in RDP 2007-2013 implementation, using the same approach causes losses. The data is based on a systematic evaluation and analysis of existing project proposals, modified for the purpose of the study to give a clear answer what have to be done in order to introduce the system into operation, realize the functions and foreseen costs for successful outcome. 90

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The existing models were analyzed and discrepancies and lost profits reported. The clear steps towards the formation of key practices absorption and management of the expert capacity have been defined. 2. MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS AND FACTORS, IMPACT ON THE RDP 2007-2013 2.1. INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RDP 2007-2013

OF

THE

The start of the programming period 2007 - 2013 delayed for fourteen months and the first measures start was postponed. Launching simultaneously twenty-two measures caused administrative problems in the performance of the management program. A low efficiency, especially in sub-measures in guarantee sectors under measure 121 (almost to the middle of July 2009) was found. By March 2011, the approved projects were mainly for purchasing of machinery for the arable crops sector, only a few have been approved for other sectors such as livestock, fruits and vegetables. For the period 2008-2009, the State Fund "Agriculture" Paying Agency (SFA-PA) contracted 4835 project proposals and fulfilled payments for 2046 of them. Over the same period, contracts for €736 million which means 368 million euro per year. For the period 2010-2011, 6551 contracts were signed and 8345 payment queries were fulfilled. For the period 2010-2011 was contracted € 841 million, while payments amounted were € 447 million. The planned contracts, set under the Programme were 60 000 as under Axis 1 were set 41 000 (68.33%). Implementation of the RDP 2007-2013 is highly unbalanced, the burden falls on several measures, some agricultural sub-sectors, several public infrastructure projects and some administrative areas, while others are lagging behind. There is a high risk that the measures under Axis 1 - Measure (M) 142 "Establishment of producers’ organizations"; M 111 "Vocational training, information, dissemination of scientific knowledge," M 122 "Improving the economic value of forests" M 124 "Cooperation for development of new products, processes and technologies in the agriculture and food sector" and Axis 2 measures will fail to utilize their programming budgets. On the other hand reporting of data from information systems (IS) is an incorrect from a management point of view, leading to difficulties in generating reports from the system. Another important peculiarity is the absence (in general) of a middle management level for delegation of functions and responsibilities, which is necessary for the functioning of the administration. The ranking system for Measure 121 "Investments in agricultural holdings" is more oriented to the project site, rather than to the characteristics of applicants for assistance( beneficiaries). 91

The same is observed for Measure 321 "Basic services for the economy and rural areas" and Measure 322 "Renovation and development of settlements," where the focus is on the approval for the project site and readiness for implementation, rather than the needs of the groups of beneficiaries. SFA-PA "transferred" almost 100% of SAPARD procedures for selection and monitoring of projects on investment measures- too centralized practices are transferred to RDP taking into consideration that Rural Development Program is much larger than the SAPARD program. State Fund "Agriculture" (SFA-PA) operates with much greater scale in terms of quantity goals. At the same time, the spent budget is 6 times greater than this available under SAPARD. A hundred thousands of applications for payment and direct payments under the measures for the Rural Development Programme(RDP) type are processed annually- direct and green payments (measure 211 "Payments to farmers for environmental constraints in mountain areas" M 212 "payments to farmers in areas with handicaps, other than mountain areas "M 214" Agrienvironmental payments, implementation of which requires additional spot checks "). The transparency is assured of the 100%, but answers to queries by certain applicants / beneficiaries come late. There is a plenty of wrong applications and projects submitted by applicants: the more time the staff of SFA RA loses for checking the inadmissible applications and the higher is the number of sanctioned / canceled contracts, the less effective is the implementation of the RDP. This increases the risk of underspending and de-commitments from the RDP. The links between the data from multiple tables are unique registration number of the beneficiary (URN) and the unique identification number of the application or contract. The data for applications/projects are stored in different databases related to the implementation of the RDP 2007 to 2013 under IACS (Integrated Administration and Control System), each contains only the data of interest to a particular administrative unit, i.e. Payment Agency(PA)departments at the central level. Due to the fact that the units are engaged in the specific row of long stages of implementation procedures, as a result they keep only detailed information related to their immediate work. The SFA PA “Rural areas” consists of two directorates. The Directorate "Contracting" prepares the review of projects to a stage of the contracting and the Directorate "Authorization" which purpose is to review the project after signing a contract, deals with to payments. The Directorate "Contracting" can provide detailed information in all stages of the processing of applications and contracts. However, the Directorate cannot provide information on actual payments, which information is stored in the Directorate "Payment Authorization" but at the same time, the same Directorate cannot give information about the applications / payments under measures 211, 212 and 214, because they are performed by a third 92

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unit: the Directorate "Direct payments" which administrates the implementation of support schemes for disadvantaged areas and agri-environmental payments (AEP) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct payments information is stored in another specific part of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), connected to the system for the identification of agricultural parcels (LPIS) and the records of the animals. 2.2. FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN OF THE BENEFICIARIES. The preparation and submission of applications / payment on the one hand means cost and on the other -a waste of time, which is an administrative burden for beneficiaries of the RDP. In this regard, the important roles play the public/private consultants, who participate in the realization of a project. Beyond the financial aspect of the problem, it is important to recognize that some factors create additional stress for applicants. As such should be noted frequent changes and specific terminology of legislation; long delay in processing of the applications and the failure of the indicative schedules for the opening reception. Using of the e-services is undeniably good practice, since good performance in saving valuable for beneficiaries and administration time. Although less than 30 percent of the population in rural Bulgaria uses the Internet, the introduction of new services and the further refinement of existing is an important factor for good services and information for the candidates. Internet use will increase in the coming years, and а part of the application documents already will be required by the SFA-PA in electronic format. Therefore it is necessary to develop communication between the administration and the users of its services through existing websites or so-called electronic portal. Such an example is the website . Further refinement of the electronic portal reduces administrative burden of the beneficiaries and increases the level of transparency and simplifies the administration-users connection. E-government service is a structural and long-term policy that fits in the priorities of the EU's "Europe 2020", and accordingly, the trends of changes in the CAP for the programming period 2014-2020. In order to have full functionality with a system, it should cover certain aspects. These aspects are set out in Table 1. When covered levels 1-5 then we have a full service e-portal. The table can also be used to assess whether a website meets the needs of both the administration and users. Possible steps to extend the licenses of the product associated with the recordkeeping system of the organization of the SFA, which in combination with the IACS construction of all functions from 1 to 5 listed below. Table. 1. Table key elements in websites

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Levels of improvement of websites created for the needs of Candidates Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Basic information about beneficiaries passive website, providing an opportunity to read the information. One-way communication with the beneficiaries ;an option to download applications and documents Two-way interaction with the beneficiaries (the website for the exchange of information, the opportunity for submission of information by the recipient) "Full" electronic processing of files (applications, the ability to monitor their status, communication between beneficiaries and administration, etc.). Personalization: proactive and automated management (supply of applications with already filled out basic information, eliminating the requirements for submission of information already received, indications concerning terms, etc.)

3. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014- 2020. The basic function of the any analysis is to indicate a fundamental decision recommendation for achieving a set goal. One of the most important goals is to define the achievements for ensuring the maximum effect of an action. Based on this, in contradiction of the accepted dogmas, RDP financial support probably have to be targeted by ranking criteria to the beneficiaries / sectors / regions where it had the highest added value and therefore to generate resources for the country taxes and export business fees; wages. There is a need of changing the logic and simplifying the procedures under RDP for the period 2014-2020 as the procedures transferred from SAPARD and used from 2007 till 2013, do not work properly. One of the first steps that should be taken is decentralization of all relevant measures administration. Some implementation activities such as information classification of projects and selection of projects financed with limited amounts can be delegated to regional offices. It is necessary to ensure continuity of staff so as to keep understanding the specific knowledge and management skills in large part is missing. Specialization of employees in terms of effective implementation of RDP and creation of key experts (leading experts) to be administrative memory of the organization is important. During the implementation of the program, some changes in the requirements concerning the documents, necessary for application, the way of reporting and respective legislation, could appear. This requires timely indication of changes in the procedures for contracting and authorization by eliminating as many unnecessary administrative control steps and increasing quality control, starting at the regional level, with subsequent optimization of the central level. This should reflect the following areas:

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• To implement the decisions taken by the Monitoring Committee for the optimization of processes associated with the Expert Committee to ensure transparency • To permit during construction to € 25,000 (e.g. measures 121, 123, 311, 312) to be done by the beneficiary. • To automate / computerize all administrative operations, including monitoring system for use by the Managing Authority of the program for rural development (MA of RDP). • To build a system interface information related to the management. When the system needs to be able to be powered by a database monitoring information for RDP PA information about the daily progress of the implementation of measures under the Programme, taking into account not only the data on the contracted projects, but also monitoring data for projects for which applications have been submitted, rejected and canceled projects • Provide timely feedback to the beneficiaries for petty violations or errors. • Use positive (good practices) and negative publicity (list of unfair beneficiaries) to illustrate the candidates what is allowed and what is a tort when they decide to take advantage of the support under the RDP. • Use of external expertise (experts registered in the database of the SFA) Create a board of external experts for advice in difficult and complex projects; Publication of advices and guidance on specific measures/ types of projects / beneficiaries. • To ensure sound management and efficient operation, should be prepared and used best practices and lessons learned to develop and manage projects as a means of training for target groups (associations, consultants, active users natural or legal persons) to be published on the website of the Fund and the RDP. Be used by them in consultation with the potential beneficiaries. It is necessary to make massive information campaigns and training for green payments Leader approach through enhanced partnerships with professional organizations and non-governmental organizations / NGOs / from the middle of 2014 and to be implemented projects for the exchange of knowledge and skills in partnership with international organizations, financed outside the EAFRD. We need a "different look" to the new realities in agriculture in the next programming period as part of this is to maximize the opportunities for exchange of experience with Member States in areas we miss such good practices; Developing a network of public consultants RDP (NAAS) through additional funding; To perform a comprehensive analysis of communication and information strategy to redirect spending towards more relevant activities.

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For the new programming period should be differentiated a smaller number of measures for which there is a great interest and all other measures to be applied after analysis. Regarding the management of PA, RDP and MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Food) is a setting up a working middle management level and specialization of employees (key experts). In terms of administration to increase the quality control and to eliminate the long-ordination procedures anyway are ineffective. In a welldeveloped checklists and instructions, check Yes / NO expert and check performance by subsequent expert is quite sufficient. To be eliminated the signature of the Team Leader, Head, Deputy Director, Executive Director would shorten the procedure. It is necessary the changes to be made it an adaptive decentralized manner and by delegation. The criteria are mainly large volume users, small amounts subsidy. An important element is the use of guarantee schemes to achieve the objectives of the RDP for bridge financing. It can be made in two directions at this stage: Guarantee scheme for issuing guarantees to supplement the collateral security for loans for businesses under the Small and Medium Enterprises and guarantees for advance payment of establishments with approved RDP projects. Guarantee scheme for issuing guarantees to supplement the collateral security for loans to firms after submission of grant applications / authorization in Payment Agency. Such an effort is currently being implemented by Bulgarian Development Bank through the National Guarantee Fund under the warranty scheme program for rural development. According to the mid-term evaluation of the RDP, Bulgaria has the legal, regulatory and administrative framework to protect the financial interests of the European Community. Implementation of the RDP in Bulgaria is a regulated at national level mainly through regulations - regulations issued by the Minister of Agriculture and Food. Specific terms and conditions for the provision of financial assistance under any measure of the RDP are defined in the ordinance. In terms of content, the regulations are in some cases too exhaustive and cover the whole mode of application of the measure: the objectives and basic conditions for eligibility transposed by EU legislation through the system for ranking projects to model applications for assistance payment requests and so on. Regulations are a key tool for the implementation of the RDP measure level and represent the final legislative product of the overall strategic planning and program management. For this reason specific content of regulations falls outside of the scope of this paper, analyzed here, will be relevant to the effective management of RDP characteristics of an act. 96

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As the institution, responsible for the implementation of the RDP, MAF adopts the necessary legislative and administrative provisions in accordance with Art. 9(1) of Regulation (EC) 1290/2005, that provides effective protection of the financial interests of the Community. One of important steps is a close cooperation of the issuing authority with competent bodies in order to improve the quality of regulations. At the current moment the established practice is following: the draft regulations are prepared by the Directorate RDP in MAF then provide for the coordination of other departments of MAF and SFA-PA and other interested institutions. The main objective of legal rules is to regulate all situations falling within its scope. However, in the process of applying the norm will always be situations arise in respect of which it is unclear. For example, in a case arising in the process of handling requests for assistance from experts of the SFA-PA is sent a letter to the MA Rural Development Directorate / RDD / in order to interpret the ordinance. A major disadvantage of such practice is the delay in response from the RDD to MAF; slow down the contracting by Authorization group for projects to which the ordinance is unclear. Another practice is resolving of the case individually by an expert examining a project. The disadvantage here is the risk of differential treatment of prospective beneficiaries and lack of a unified approach. Timely information and publicity is a problem. Timely notification of potential users for issue / amendment of regulations / procedures governing the terms and conditions for providing financial support under the RDP measures is essential for the effective implementation of the Programme. This is linked with the strategic planning and compliance with the indicative timetable for reception of applications. In the practice, in many cases, regulations are amended or promulgated in the State newspaper (Government Gazette) less than one month before the opening of the window for receiving requests for assistance or during intake. The compliance with the minimum period of one month before the opening reception of applications would have a positive effect milestones and achieve real competitive action between the candidates. On the one hand timely information on applicable legislation, combined with a suitable campaign will help the number of applicants increased. On the other, well acquainted with the conditions of beneficiaries will submit better applications support that the administrative burden and corresponding deadlines for processing applications from SFA-PA will be reduced. 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS In terms of the decision making process in order to achieve fast and effective results in the preparation of procedural rules for the implementation of the measures and prior coordination has been running this procedure is done at the 97

level of PA in approval should participate MA of RDP. Here comes the need for mutual information links between these two units. Availability of relevant information on both sides but allows making quick and effective decisions. The decisions of cases have to be published on the website of the RDP and the MAF. An internal database has to be created for the needs of experts working in the SFA-PA. An important point is to maintain active contacts with industry / NGOs, to provide timely draft ordinances and preparatory materials in order to reach as many potential beneficiaries reflecting their position to the maximum extent without prejudice to the criteria set down in the program. It is necessary to consider the possibility of introducing some measures under the RDP application online. This will speed up the process of modernization of management techniques RDP and will increase the efficiency of documents approval. Application may become through the website of the Fund by creating a database to complete with detailed instructions for each step and allow the applicant to submit the documents within a specified period or the SFA will automatically delete the data submitted. The data to be entered only in electronic form in the IACS system - eliminating the need to process paper documents and printing checklist and worksheet of the system is necessary to get all attachments to the system inside the checklist, as this will ensure traceability and reliability of the information to provide autonomous system to facilitate the processing of documents through the possibility of simultaneously opening the system and scanned document , to draw up procedures for managing scanned documents and to retained for an appropriate period of time , to scan the document after page numbering to reduce the risk of addition. The control functions that are not required by the Regulations and cause excessively heavy workload and reduce the effectiveness and timing of treatment have to be changed. (Under this Regulation it is not compulsory the project to be approved by all levels in SFA and such control is practically impossible and is not necessary). Some opportunities for minimizing controls in the analysis of the Business Plan (BP) have to be provided. At present, provides a detailed entering of data in BP, leading to a delay in the processing of projects and reduce efficiency. The only condition is alleged cash flows show the viability and need not betting on complex analysis. At the present moment, there are many fields in which it is necessary to fill the same information as in IACS (Integrated Administration and Control System), which cause delays in handling projects under the RDP. The system allows generating the information from IACS in completing the consolidation of information from check list and worksheet that can reduce the duplication of work

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in check list and worksheet and there is no need to manually fill in the information. This will lead to: A) Reduction of the possibility of technical errors. B) Reduction of the possibility of improper adjustment of data after a particular stage of processing. Concentrating efforts to simplify the work and lack of opportunity for interpretation by the staff working in the RDP, and draw up a single record or applicable form of archive practices on projects used in certain cases as to this group hire lawyers as technical assistance. Providing "information days" for presentation the main requirements for application and management facilitate the understanding of general public and beneficiaries. Development of good practice by creating an internal employee forum where they discuss and interpret studies, as this keep a record of interpretations, useful for audit missions as well can prove how they came to the solution to a problem or challenge and record the changes. Through this approach by creating an integrated database solution studies, the handling of projects will speed up and will contribute to the implementation of a unified approach to work and ensure equal treatment of all projects in the selection process of employees on the implementation of the RDP. Establishing a tracking system for budgets under the RDP will facilitate the monitoring budget axes and following budgets for contracting and payment. A suitable form for IACS and / or record-keeping system for tracking the movement of documents processing project and dates of employees to be developed; Reducing the required documents increases the efficiency and reduce the technical efforts following the procedures for documents that are not needed for control. An important condition is to meet the 1 - month period for responding to complaints. If a candidate is already registered under a scheme and has submitted documents, to be excused from submitting the same document to other directorates, i.e. the information generated to be used in all schemes of SFA thereafter. Allocation of treatment projects in HQ without the involvement of the human factor, but by IACS (module has been created and exists) as the guiding principle of proportional distribution of consecutive projects in HQ. One of the most important recommendations is that questions and answers panels be published regularly; all unexplained cases concerning the candidates from SFA and SFA MAF principle 100 questions 100 response. In the dynamic environment in which the management of the public administration is a part of a process associated with the maintenance and creation of economic wealth flexibility and adaptability in the shortest possible time is needed. This is not a quirk or eccentricity of modern society, this is the basis for the development of competitive agriculture and developed agricultural sector, supporting services 99

and activities and the production and export of really quality products in order to improve the quality of life of the society in general.

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REFERENCES 1.Program for Rural Development 2007-2013 2.Mid-term evaluation of the RDP g.prsr.government.bg/index.php/bg/sections/l2/55>

2007-2013

3.SAPARD Review in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania: Impact Analysis of the Agriculture and Rural Development. European Institute Foundation / Open Society Institute. 2005. 4.State Fund "Agriculture" - www.dfz.bg 5.Ministry of Agriculture and Food - www.mzh.government.bg CONTACT Svilen Kolev PhD Student; University of National and World Economy (UNWE), Sofia,

Bulgaria; Department “Economics of Natural Resources”, Student Town; 8th December Blvd., Sofia1700, Bulgaria; E-mail: [email protected]

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SABEVA Monika, KOPEVA Diana 31 LAND USE AND LAND-COVER CHANGES IN BULGARIA

Abstract. The paper analysis the change on land –use and land cover in Bulgaria. The factors that shape the land-use change are economical, sociological and cultural. We can distinguish territorial differences based on level of development. Land-use change in developed regions are characterized with changes in production systems (product –mix, crops, use of fertilizers, pesticides and sprays; number of livestock, etc.) while in less developed regions it is observed change in land-cover resulting in shift from agriculture to non-agricultural land like forests, urban areas, etc. The observed trends indicate a slow process of transition in land-use and land-cover. The results show that land-cover change is not mainly economically motivated, and environment concerns hardly play a role. Social aspects and demographic factors have more viable influence. The paper is structured as follows. Section one is introduction, followed by analysis of the factors influencing the land-use and land-cover in section two. State, ongoing processes of land-use change in Bulgaria are presented in third section. Last section is conclusions.

Keywords: Land-use change; land-cover change; Bulgaria. JEL codes: Q150; Q18 1. INTRODUCTION, Land is the basis for most biological and human activities on Earth. Agriculture, forestry, industries, transport, housing and other services use land as a natural and/or an economic resource. Land can be divided into two interlinked layers: land cover and land use. Land cover and land use data forms the basis for spatial and territorial analyses which are increasingly important for:  the planning and management of agricultural, forest, wetland, water and urban areas;  nature, biodiversity and soil protection, and;  the prevention and mitigation of natural hazards and climate change The paper aims to present the changes in land cover and land use in last decade in Bulgaria and to analyse the factors affecting them. 31

University of National and World Economy (UNWE); Business Faculty; Department Economics of Natural Resources; Room 1070; Sofia 1700; Bulgaria; Tel: +359 888 345175; +359 (0)28195 294; Email: [email protected]

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The paper is structured as follows. Section one is introduction, followed by analysis of the factors influencing the land-use and land-cover in section two. State, ongoing processes of land-use change in Bulgaria are presented in third section. Last sections are conclusions. 2. METHODOLOGY The research uses definitions given by EUROSTAT for land use and land cover. According to them: 



Land cover refers to the observed (bio)physical cover of the Earth's surface. It corresponds to the physical coverage of the earth’s surface.The main classes in the land cover nomenclature are as follows: artificial land, cropland, woodland, shrubland grassland, bareland, water and wetland. On that basis various biophysical categories can be distinguished: areas of vegetation (trees, bushes, crops, grasses, herbs); artificial land (buildings, roads); bare soil (rock, sand); wet areas and bodies of water (sheets of water and watercourses, wetlands). Land use refers to the socio-economic purpose of the land. Areas of land can be used for residential, industrial, agricultural, forestry, recreational, transport etc. purposes. Often the same land is used for several purposes e.g. woodland can be use for forestry, hunting and recreational purposes. The main classes in theland use nomenclature are as follows: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Mining and quarrying, Hunting, Energy production, Industry and manufacturing, Transport, communication networks, storage and protective works; Water and waste treatment; Construction; Commerce, finance and business; Community services; Recreational, leisure and sport; Residential; Unused

This article presents statistical data on land cover, land use from CORINE data base , as well as from BANSIK survey. Data from the land use/cover frame survey (LUCAS), the largest harmonised land survey implemented in the EU, could not be used for Bulgaria, due to the fact that the survey did not include the country in the list of surveyed countries along with other new member states. Data from LUCAS are available for 2012 but it is just a snapshot of the status and did not provide information about the changes in land use and land cover. 3. ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LAND-USE AND LAND-COVER

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Our statistical analysis suggested that increased urbanization, population growth and concentration in big cities, and economic reforms in Bulgaria are three major correlates of land-use change over the period from 1989 to 2014 The literature review revealed that the major land-use change is caused by the increasing demand for non-agricultural land because of urban, business and infrastructure development. Infrastructure development is one of the most important driving forces of land-use changes in Bulgaria, and it plays an important role in reducing the quantity of arable land Urbanization greatly contributed to the loss of agricultural land since 1990 and is generally seen as one of the most important factors of land-use change. Two forms of urbanization have occurred: the growth of cities following urban economic development and population concentration, and rural urbanization based on the growth of smaller towns in rural. The direct result of urbanization was the reduction of agricultural land by increasing urban settlements. Market and market demand is another factor having influence on land cover and land use changes. Demand for new products and increased demand for greater quantity of traditional goods and products caused changes in land use pattern. These changes are expressed in increased amount of certain groups and decrease in other. Internationalization of business and globalization also play an important role in land use change.

4. STATE, ONGOING PROCESSES OF LAND-USE CHANGE IN BULGARIA ARE PRESENTED According to Turner et al. (2007) land change in Europe has increased to unprecedented levels over the past couple of decades. What’s more, the fastest of these changes relate to the covering of land with artificial surfaces, which increased by 6 258km2, or 3.4% of the European continent between 2000 and 2006 alone. Not only does this have to do with the fact that Europe’s population is still increasing, but also the fact that people in Europe generally have the desire for increased living space per person. In this part we will trace the state and ongoing processes of land cover and land use changes in Bulgaria in the last decade. The analysis is based on CORINE data sets and National survey BANSIC (various years). 4.1. LAND COVER In the CLC2006 Bulgaria database 36 CORINE nomenclature classes are presented with total area of 11,242,620.6 ha. More than half of the country territory belongs to two classes: 104

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 Nonirrigated arable land – 3,899,946.4 ha (34.69%);  Broadleave forests – 2,360,819.0ha (21,00%).  Non-irrigated arable land – 3,899,946.4 ha (34.69%);  Broad leafed forest – 2,360,819.0ha (21,00%). Level 1 class distribution is presented in Table 2 and illustrated in Fig.1. Almost 90% of the territory is occupied by 3 level 1 land cover classes:   

Arable lands – 5 760 750 ha (51,24%); Forest and seminatural areas – 4 795 873 ha (42,66%); Artificial surfaces – 558 410 ha (4,97%).

Forests and other wooded areas occupied 42.66 % of the total area of Bulgaria in 2006, arable land more than half of the territory (51.24 %) and artificial surfaces 4.97 %, while wetlands and water bodies accounted for 1.13 % of the total area (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Source: CORINE Land Cover Data Base, 2006.

Land cover varies in a significant way between planning regions, districts and municipalities in the country. Cropland (including both arable land and permanent crops) dominated the landscape in Bulgaria. Half of the country is covered by arable land (51.24%). Forest and seminatural areas accounted above 40% of the territory – (42.66%). Artificial land composed 4.97 % of the total area of the country in 2006. It is observed increase the volume of area in this group due to the investment in constructions. Wetlands and Water bodies cover very small percentage of the territory – 1.13%. On average 1.8 % of the EU was covered by wetlands and 3.4 % by inland water areas in 2009. Wetland is typically found along lakesides and in coastal areas, as well as in the form of bogs. The relative

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scarcity of wetlands and their importance as a habitat for various animal species (in particular, birds) often results in wetlands becoming protected areas. Land cover in Bulgaria is given in Figure 2.

For the period 2000-2006 the changes identified are presented with total area of 528 272 ha, which is 0.53% of the country territory. The biggest changes are in class Forest and seminatural areas, followed by arable lands and artificial surfaces. The Level 1 changes are presented in Table 4 and Figure 2. Table 1. CLC 2006-2000 changes (level 1) CLC 2006-2000 changes Artificial surfaces Arable land Forest and seminatural areas Wetlands Water bodies Total:

Area (ha) 4594.73 4893.29 48810.57 165.97 0.00 58464.57

% 7.86% 8.37% 83.49% 0.28% 0.000% 100.00%

Table 2 shows the changes in the land cover in Bulgaria arranged in descending order. The biggest changes for the period 2000 - 2006 are encountered in two classes - Forest and seminatural areas - 324 (59.5%) - deforestation and class 311 – 106

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(20.1% aforestation). The sum changes in this class are 83.5%. The next biggest changes are in class Arable lands - 8.4% (6.2% of them in class 211 – transformations of arable land).

Table 2. CLC changes 2000-2006 CLC code 324

Area(ha) 34,810.2

% 59.54%

Coniferous forests

311

Annual crops associated with permanent crops

11,777.1

20.14%

211

Non-irrigated arable land

3,599.7

6.16%

131

Mineral extraction sites

2,156.5

3.69%

313

1,176.5

2.01%

133

Land principally occupied by agriculture with significant areas of natural vegetation Construction sites

825.8

1.41%

221

Rice fields

613.2

1.05%

312

Complex cultivation patterns

609.9

1.04%

142

Sport and leisure facilities

585.6

1.00%

121 334

Industrial or commercial units Sclerophyllous vegetation

554.6 382.6

0.95% 0.65%

242

Olive groves

308.8

0.53%

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Discontinuous urban fabric

281.3

0.48%

222

Vineyards

231.5

0.40%

411

Transitional woodland-scrub

166

0.28%

124

Airports

110.6

0.19%

213

Permanently irrigated land

73.4

0.13%

132

Dump

55.2

0.09%

231

Fruit trees and berries plantations

35.9

0.06%

333

Moors and heathlands

33

0.06%

123

Sea ports

25.2

0.04%

243

Pastures

24.2

0.04%

322

Broad leafed forest

21.3

0.04%

412

Beaches, dunes, sand

6.6

0.01%

58,464.6

100.00%

Total:

4.2. LAND USE 107

Land use change is often considered to be a primary driver for changes in different systems – economic, social and eco. In recent years some of the most important land use changes have included: a decline in agricultural land use (as crop yields continue to rise); an increase in urban areas (arising from population and economic change); and a gradual increase in forest land areas (in part, driven by the need to meet global environmental commitments in relation to climate change). The development of roads, motorways, railways, intensive agriculture and urban developments has led to Bulgaria’s landscape being increasingly broken up into small pieces. For the last decade it is observed increase of land for forestry, agriculture and fishery, Industry and services, administrative buildings. Year by year changes are presented in Table 3 and Figure 3. Table 3. Land use changes for the period 2004 -2013 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 31 32 32 33 34 36 36 720 830 236 957 062 597 648 Agriculture and 5 623 5 717 5 645 5 613 5 614 5 600 5 613 Fishery 927 839 080 891 470 490 052 3 670 3 676 3 679 3 676 3 664 3 701 3 704 Forestry 124 498 932 868 701 268 405 63 64 55 65 67 66 67 Industry and services 498 703 342 776 081 756 315 206 206 205 206 202 194 190 Networks (road, water, air) 291 975 160 561 812 702 061 Administration and 22 24 34 25 25 25 26 management 231 958 336 485 584 840 262 50 97 47 47 47 46 46 46 Армия 6 510 196 330 828 579 508 11 11 11 12 11 11 Education, culture 8 380 627 913 907 104 839 806 Health centers, sport 47 46 43 43 44 43 42 centers 739 427 352 567 377 786 953 318 290 289 285 290 284 284 Housing 360 230 409 993 367 903 151 Not used (for short 1 088 980 1 056 1 088 1 097 1 087 1 077 and/or long time) 664 593 234 855 804 430 029 Source: BANSIK, Ministry of Agriculture. Minning

2011 2012 2013 37 37 31 370 167 950 5 659 5 698 5 573 672 442 156 3 704 3 706 3 844 257 299 184 67 69 67 803 916 148 188 187 1602 100 992 62 26 26 24 070 070 590 48 48 49 539 437 238 9 908 9 908 9 088 43 43 44 275 482 135 282 281 2709 392 795 37 1 032 990 1 025 804 682 502

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Figure 3. 5. CONCLUSIONS Land-use change in Bulgaria can be characterized by three major trends: First, the non-agricultural land (urban and rural settlements, construction land, and artificial ponds) increased substantially from 1989 to 2013, thus causing agricultural land to decrease continuously. Second, a fragmentation of land ownership respectively of land use and land cove r(LULC) was evident after completion of land reform (1989-2000). Third, the conversion of agricultural land in and around tourist centers is a very serious issue. The expansion of urban and rural settlements, artificial ponds and construction land was almost completely at the expense of agricultural land and forests. Infrastructural investments, urbanization, population growth, and economic reforms are four major driving forces contributing to landuse change in Bulgaria. The rapid investments process in infrastructure and tourism increased the demand for non-agricultural land, which diminished cultivated land and the resulting crop production. The direct outcome of urbanization was the expansion of urban settlement areas and construction land. Population growth in big cities further increased the demand for housing land there. We can distinguish territorial differences based on level of development. Land-use change in developed regions are characterized with changes in production systems (product –mix, crops, use of fertilizers, pesticides and sprays; number of livestock, etc.) while in less developed regions it is observed change in land-cover resulting in shift from agriculture to non-agricultural land like forests, urban areas, etc. The observed trends indicate a slow process of transition in land-use and land-cover. The results show that land-cover change is not mainly economically motivated,

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and environment concerns hardly play a role. Social aspects and demographic factors have more viable influence. REFERENCES 1. CORINE Data Base 2. CORINE Land Cover in 2006 in Bulgaria. Final Paper. Sofia, 2008. 3. Hoshino, S. Statistical Analysis of land use Change and Driving forces in the Kansai District, Japan. IIASAWorking Paper : WP-96-120. 1996. 4. KOPEVA, D. Land interrelations in market economy. RAKURS Publishing House. Sofia, 2012 5. National Statistical Institute (NSI) Annual Year Book (various years) 6. BANSIK . Ministry of Agriculture. Various years.

CONTACT University f National and World Economy (UNWE) Business Faculty, Department Economics of Natural Resources, Room 1070 8th December Blvd., Student Town “Hristo Botev”, Sofia 1700, Bulgaria Tel: 00359 2 8195 294; 00359 888 345175 E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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SABEVA Monika COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES FOR ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT (SIA), STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) and ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA)

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and to compare the basic methods for environmental assessment, applied in practice. Every investment, project, plan or program affects the components of the environment during its implementation. This requires initiation of procedures and standards for preventive control, most important of which are the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of investment projects, the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of plans and programs and the sustainability impact assessment (SIA). These methods are focusing only on some of the aspects of environmental impact and do not cover all of its complexity. The three approaches include different groups of indicators. This could be a reason for not considering the cumulative effects when different strategies, plans, programs, projects and investment offers are simultaneously implemented and deepen the negative impacts. So, it is necessary that an aggregated approach be elaborated. It should be relevant to all management levels and to economic, social and environmental spheres, and should allow implementation of a detailed and thorough assessment. This would deteriorate and delay the procedure, but it would also assure better results for the environment and its sustainable development.

Keywords: SIA, SEA, EIA, comparative analysis, sustainable development (sustainability) JEL codes: Q01; Q50; Q56; Q57; Q59 Table 1 EIA EIA is implemented on investment projects and describes and assesses their direct and indirect effects on humans, environment and landscape for each individual case. This procedure should be used for investment projects,

Comparative analysis SEA SEA is implemented on politics, plans and programs. It defines the environmental effects of implementing politics, plans and programs. This activity identifies the difference of sector politics at an early stage of decision

SIA SIA is a systematic and iterative process for preliminary assessment of the possible economic, social and environmental impacts of strategic and planning documents at various levels. Of all the methods for environmental

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which are expected to have a significant impact on environment. Over the past 10 years EIA has become a instrument for leading identification and minimization of negative impacts of human activity on environment. The purpose of EIA is to identify, describe and assess the various direct and indirect impacts of investment projects on humans and on environment.

Objects of EIA are investment projects for construction, activities and technologies that have a direct impact both on national and on crossborder range.

Subjects of EIA are the Minister of Environment and Water, the directors of Regional Inspectorates of Environment and Water and authorized experts.

making and is performed simultaneously with their preparation, considering their goals, territorial scope (range) and particularity. Thus the possible impacts of politics, plans and programs are identified, described and assessed in an appropriate way. The purpose of SEA is to identify the environmental problems (issues) at an early stage of development of strategic planning decisions. This assessment provides the necessary information to enable consideration of the potential environmental hazards related to the implementation of the plan or program. Objects of SEA are strategies, plans and programs in transportation, agriculture, forestry, industry, energy, tourism, extraction of underground and ground resources, water use and management of water resources, fisheries, urban planning and land use, waste management and electronic messages. Subjects of SEA are the Minister of Environment and Water and the directors of Regional Inspectorates of Environment and Water .

assessments, SIA is the most detailed and includes strategies, politics, plans, programs and projects.

The main purpose of SIA is to improve the effectiveness of the relevant strategic and planning documents at different levels by increasing the positive effects and mitigating the negative ones, and also to avoid the transfer of negative impacts to future generations. Objects of SIA are strategic and planning documents at various levels, policies, plans, programs and projects with potentially significant impact on sustainable development, both on national and on cross-border range.

Subject of SIA is the sustainability of the effects of implementing the relevant strategic and planning documents.

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Stages of the SIA: Stages of SEA: Stages of the EIA: 1) Screening; 1) Screening; SIA comprises 4 stages and each of them has 2 steps: 2) Scoping; 2) Scoping; 1) Analysis of compliance 3) Accumulation of 3) Documenting the – Includes – basic data; state of examination of the 4) Identification of the environment; proposal and impact; 4) Determinating the determination the 5) Comparison of the potential impacts on scope of assessment; effects of the environment; 2) Determination of selected alternatives 5) Informing and range – Includes – and determinating consulting the selecting the tools and public; of their methods and ensuring 6) Impact of the significance; the participation of decision; 6) Describing of stakeholders; 7) Monitoring mitigation actions; 3) Impact analysis – 7) Public consultation Includes – analysis of and participation; economic, 8) Monitoring of environmental and environment; social impacts and 9) Environmental identification of audit. synergies, conflicts and possible compromises between them; 4) Optimization – Includes – offering measures to optimize the positive results and presentating of results and options for policy makers.

Table 2 Main differences between EIA, SEA and SIA1 EIA

SEA

SIA

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Object of evaluation

Investment projects with potentially significant impact on environment.

Plans and programs (sometimes politics) with potentially significant impact on environment.

Environmental Policy

Environmental Policy

Environmental aspects

Environmental aspects and sometimes socioeconomic aspects

Established by most of the governments and national and regional governance structures

Established by increasing number of governments and national and regional governance structures

Reference framework

Scope of the assessment

Implementation of government

1

Strategies, policies, plans, programs and projects with potentially significant impact on sustainable development. National development strategies and/or policy frameworks for sustainable development, as well as individual projects financed by EU Structural Funds It focuses on the issues of sustainable development and policies for integration of economic, social and environmental spheres Introduced at EU level and in several European countries, mostly on an experimental basis

Adapted by S. Barry, Barry Dalal-Clayton – Strategic Environmental Assessment: A Sourcebook & Reference Guide to International Experience

Indicators, used in the three methods for environmental assessment (EIA, SEA and SIA) are basic indicators related to the objectives and basic indicators related to context. Indicators, used in SIA and SEA are exactly the same, and the ones used in EIA are more detailed and specific for different sectors (agriculture, forestry, tourism and environment) and for the three spheres – economic, social and ecological. Relations between humanity and environment are a prerequisite for the appearance of some changes in it, which can significantly deteriorate its condition. According to the World Economic Forum, the most serious environmental threats, caused by 114

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humanity are pollution, mismanagement of land and water use, overexploitation, unprecedented geophysical destruction and mismanaged urbanization. This threatens ecosystems, social stability, health, and economic development and requires strict measures for conservation and preventing (or limiting) the adverse impacts. So, the environment assessment of all strategic and planning documents at different levels becomes a major instrument for preserving the ecological stability. Sustainable development and environmental protection is one of the four priorities of the Strategy "Europe 2020". The Strategy aims to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. All EU members are committed to fulfill the objectives and priorities of the Strategy. For each country there are certain specific recommendations adapted to the economic conditions and the specific problems of the country. REFERENCES: 1. DIRECTIVE 2001/42/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 27 of June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programs on the environment 2. EIA PRINCIPLES and PROCESSES – http://www.unescap.org/drpad/vc/orientation/m8_1.htm 3. EU RURAL DEVELOPMENT REPORTS, 2008 – 2012 4. GUIDANCE on SIA, OECD 2010 5. HANDBOOK for TRADE SIA, European Commision – http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/march/tradoc_127974.pdf 6. OECD, Conducting Sustainability Assessments, 2002, Chapter 1 7. OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC and SOCIAL COMMITTEE on the "Assessment of Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIA) and EU trade policy", Brussels, 28 April 2011 (2011/C 218/03) 8. REGULATION of the TERMS and PROCEDURES for EIA – http://ecoteambg.com/resources/docs/N_OVOS.pdf 9. SEA: ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT on "Strategy for the Progress of Scottish agriculture" - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/29131428/16 10. SEA PROTOCOL to the Convention on EIA in a Transboundary Context http://www.parliament.bg/pub/ECD/71569COM_2008_132_BG_ACTE2_f.pdf 11. A. KERSTIN – SEA and SIA – two participative assessment tools for sustainability – http://www.arbter.at/pdf/paper_Arbter.PDF

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12. B. GERALD – Sustainability Impact Assessment: Approaches and applications in Europe, SIA as integrated assessment tool - http://www.sdnetwork.eu/?k=quarterly%20reports&report_id=5#qr14 13. DOICHINOVA, YU., IVAN GEORGIEV, ALBENA MITEVA, ZORNITSA STOYANOVA – Managing aspects of eco-economic education of students at the UNWE, Sofia, 2010 14. J., POPE – “Sustainability Assessment: What is it and how do we do it”, 2003 15. S. BARRY, BARRY DALAL-CLAYTON – Strategic Environmental Assessment: A Sourcebook & Reference Guide to International Experience

CONTACT Monika Sabeva, University of National and World Economy (UNWE), Sofia, Bulgaria Department “Economics of Natural Resources”, Business Faculty Office 1070 E-mail: [email protected]

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VARJÚ Viktor ENVIRONMENTAL COHESION IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT32

Abstract. One important aspect of European Regional Policy is cohesion. Territorial cohesion, as a complement for economic and social cohesion, is supposed to moderate imbalances. Environmental cohesion is a tool to achieve sustainable development in practice. It is essential that in order to measure the succes of sustainability/environmental cohesin, we have to take into consideration soft elements that influences an environment protection oriented activity. The most important of them is governance and the management. The paper focuses on the implementation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and Cohesion Funds in environmental related investments in CEE countries. Based on international and OTKA researches, the paper concludes by arguing that in order to achieve a successful, integrative environmental cohesion, de-bureaucratised institutional system, permanently remaining capactiy building and proper strategic planning are needed.

Keywords: environmental cohesion, strategic environmental assessment, CEE countries, governance JEL codes: Q02, Q28, Q56 INTRODUCTION From the 1980’s the redistribution system of European Community (EC) resulted in the implementation of major projects and plans. Due to the regional policy, the regional development activities, the growth of the number of investments is inevitably followed by ascendant land use, emission and contamination of the environment. Taking into consideration the interaction between regional policy/territorial cohesion and environmental policy, EU has made several attempts to integrate environmental policy into cohesion actions. The fifth EU Environmental Action Programme urged the assessment of the environmental impact in policy planning, consideration of environmental costs and benefits, monitoring of environmental effects, co-operation with environmental authorities and public availability of environmental information (Lenschow 1997). While, for 32

This paper is supported by the OTKA - Hungarian Scientific Research Fund grant #NK 104985 (New driving forces of spatial restructuring and regional development paths in Eastern Europe at the beginning of 21st century).

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example, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) integrates environmental interests into regional development (Partidário and Voogd 2004, Varjú 2008), on the other side, based on financial activities, EU forces environmental related investments to be financed by the Cohesion Fund (former ISPA) (e.g. investment in sewage systems or waste management). Implicitly these different types of tools can improve the integration of environmental cohesion into the territorial one; however, in order to achieve greater environmental justice, we have to take into consideration the differences in the institutional settings of the implementation. The will of the member states to equalise social and territorial injustice is common. However, its implementation and success are different, depending on cultural, social differences and on the path-dependency of their socio-cultural entity. This paper (while looking trough and revisiting two types of research results) is looking for the most important peculiarities of institutional settings that determine the success, the efficiency of cohesion and the implementation of environmental efforts in Central and Eastern European Countries. Under the umbrella of the 6th research framework programme - called G-FORS33 Strategic Environmental Assessments in different countries were analysed in the period of 2006-2008. In the research project interviews were carried out with the stakeholders and important documents were analysed concerning legislation, planning and the SEA process (Pálné and Varjú (eds.) 2009). The (country) reports of the ex-post evaluation of Cohesion Fund (CF)34 present an overview and summary evaluation of the management and implementation of the ISPA and CF in new EU member states from 2000 to 2011. The report is based on research conducted at national levels, comprising a review of documents and data, interviews with stakeholders whose collective experience spanned the period of the evaluation, and a workshop where all levels of countries’ Cohesion Fund delivery system were represented. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, ENVIRONMENTAL COHESION

TERRITORIAL

COHESION

AND

Determining whether an environmental policy initiative and integration is “effective” is problematic. The reason for this is that there are different types of 33

G-FORS – Governance for Sustainability – EU 6th Framework Programme (2006–2009) Research Coordinator: Metropolitan Region of Hannover, Regional and European Affairs, Hannover - http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/projects/241_en.html. 34 Ex-post Evaluation of Cohesion Fund (including ISPA) – Work Package D: Management & Implementation. Research leader: University of Strathclyde with the contribution of Fraser Associate. Reports, including Hungarian Report, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/expost2006/wpd_en.htm

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effectiveness to consider (Theophilou et al. 2010). Sadler (1996) distinguishes three types of effectiveness: “Procedural – Does the environmental assessment (EA) process conform to established provisions and principles? Substantive – Does the EA process achieve the objectives set, e.g. support wellinformed decision-making and result in environmental protection? Transactive – Does the EA process deliver these outcome(s) at least cost in the minimum time possible, i.e. is it effective and efficient?” (Sadler 1996, p. 39.) We argue that these approaches of measurement are not only relating to EA, but they can be used in the evaluation of environmental investment processes. Evidently, the complexity of the environmental system should be reflected in the substantive planning approach. Besides substantive, procedural planning issues need to be considered, too (Partidário – Voogd 2004, p. 287). Territorial cohesion, as a complement for economic and social cohesion, is supposed to moderate imbalances by decreasing centre–periphery disparities, and it aims at the equal dispersion of goods and services for all EU citizens with equal accessibility (Faludi 2007). Layard and Holder (2010) argue that environmental cohesion (as a new EU paradigm for a place-based interpretation of environmental justice) has a clear connection to territorial cohesion. In their new approach they suggest that advantages for people ‘could include not only advantages of greater economic development and growth, including equal opportunities to engage in entrepreneurial activity and to receive services, but also a concern for an equitable distribution of environmental protection and access to environmental services … While environmental justice has conventionally been conceptualised as a human-centred harm, it is fundamentally a collective concern, premised on location’ (Layard – Holder 2010, p. 10).35 We argue that the fulfilment of environmental cohesion needs a proper management structure not only in a procedural, substantive, but also in a placebased sense. RESULTS, DISCUSSION 35

In non-EU countries regional environmental cohesion is used as an instrument to accelerate accession to the EU and it may be manifested as a declaration of environmental diplomacy. The reason for environmental cohesion is the pollution of the environment caused by the destruction of industrial installations, military35 and other waste (Mihajlov 2008).

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Based on the above mentioned researches we made an attempt to revisit them and analyse from a different approach, making comparison and discussion from another perspective. The mentioned G-FORS project aimed to assess how different governance arrangements in different countries may be enabled to generate, transfer different knowledge forms (e.g. institutional, expert, steering, milieu etc.), accompanied by a certain KnowledgeScape (cf. Heinelt et al. 2006, Matthiesen 2005). Hungary is a strongly centralised, unitary country where, especially subsequent to the systemic change, medium tier governance became the weak point. Planning at regional level, the elaboration of regional operational programmes (ROP) met the legal and personal requirements of the EU and the Hungarian central governmental orders. The newer and newer versions of the OPs “pursued” the continuously changing central expectations. The ROPs were made according to the “residual principle”, and their content was determined at the National Development Agency (NDA). The Government has concentrated on the planning and implementation work at the NDA, the ROPs were prepared in similar linear processes, even though the local organisations played a significant role in the preparatory phase (Pálné Kovács – Varjú 2009). Regarding the modes of interaction, in the planning process of the SEA preparations were carried out in a sorely formalised way. Here a hierarchical, multilevel governance model was detected which nevertheless had to be supplemented by elements of networking (partnership). During the SEA public participation process, the NDA provided a multi-channel option for partner’s comments: partly on the website of the NDA and partly through a web interface. The planner, however, did not seek stronger co-operation with the SEA makers and the consultation partners, instead concentrated only on the proper “ready made report”. There were several similarities in the Polish36 case. Hierarchy in governance, the delay in the processes and the parallel SEA and planning activities also refer to the ‘stapled’ way of integration (in the understanding of Partidário – Voogd 2004). What was another problem in the Polish case that SEA makers and planners were not totally independent to each other, what means a non-independent environmental measurement of the related plans (Lukomska et al. 2008). What is important to note here is that in Poland learning can be detected, as they finalised the programming for the next planning period of 2014-20, while in Hungary the process had delay, again.

36

In the research the other cases were not belonging to CEEC, since here those were not analysed.

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The mentioned ex-post evaluation analysed the management and implementation of ISPA/CF. Beside the need of integrating environmental policy into regional development, an effective way to improve environmental quality is proper implementation of Cohesion Fund, as it resulted in 828 environmental projects in the planning period of 2000–2006. Revisited these ex-post evaluations, and thinking back to the Hungarian case (mainly evaluated by the author), basically it can be said that administrational and management capacity were not ready for receiving resources in the most CEE countries (namely Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria). The programming period of 2007-13 was a challenge in several countries (e.g. Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia) where institutional knowledge and capacity were not transformed properly. Based on the intervention rate two clusters can be created. Those countries where the rate of intervention comparing to the budget was between 70-79% (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania), while there is an other cluster where the percentages were under 70% (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia). Although reasons vary, the basic problems were some discrepancies in the institutional settings and the lack of competency. In the Hungarian case it was unambiguous: there were lots of delays, infectivity and bureaucracy in the institutional system, and there were leaks in the capacity as the Hungarian Control Body (ÁSZ) 37 continuously revealed them. The evaluation of the management and governance in the member states are based on their harmonisation of EU and national rules and expectations and legal prescription. Analysers also evaluated the positive spin-off effect of the implementation. In this sense we could find positive example in Lithuania (similarly to experienced countries such as Ireland). In ISPA management EU required decentralisation in management. There was an institution dedicated to this requirement, the Delegation, which helped in the implementation. After the accession the function was allocated to member states in order to leave them use their own institutional culture. Basically there were three aspects that affected the creation of management systems: the stability of the institutions, the continuality of the administration and the personal capacity. We could find negative effects of institutional instability in Czech Republic and Slovakia where after the accession, managements were allocated to sectoral Ministries, and therefore there was a need for capacity building that caused delay in the implementations. In Hungary the continuous institutional rearrangements had negative effects due to the change of 37

ISPA Report 2005: „Jelentés az ISPA támogatásból megvalósított környezetvédelmi programok ellenőrzéséről.” http://www.asz.hu/jelentes/0469/jelentes-az-ispa-tamogatasbol-megvalositottkornyezetvedelmi-programok-ellenorzeserol/0469j000.pdf [cit. 2011.11.11.]

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Governments (2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2010). The transformation from ISPA (2000-2006) to Cohesion Fund (2007-13) resulted in knowledge loss in Slovakia and Romania, where due to the institutional rearrangements knowledge holders were lost (as experts/employments could not continue their work in the new institution). Regarding the lower level of implementation we could find positive examples. In Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Hungary, on the project level good/proper coordination and interaction among actors helped the effectiveness of project implementation. We could find counterexamples on strategic (planning) level, where strategic planning was bureaucratic, had relatively high level of politicisation, and it had low amount (although competent) of personal capacity in the planning process (e.g. in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania). On the other side, we could detect adequate strategy-application in the environmental investment implementations in Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia. The effectiveness of the institutional system is indicated by (for example) the approval of the project plans. In the cases of environmental major investment, this process took only six months in Lithuania and Slovakia, whilst we could find the slowest processes (sometimes more than two years) in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary and Poland. In Figure 1 we summarised those factors that had positive or negative impacts on environmental investments. In the Figure 1 management, institutional and governance elements indicate the effectiveness of environmental cohesion in a given territory (bearing their institutional cultural aspects). The following factors were taken into consideration: - Adequate strategic planning (strategic planning in time); - PraG vs. national procurement (at the end of the period): Procurements were standardised with EU procurement/rules. Weaknesses: in terms of independence; transparency; quality of decision; - Approval time of projects (0,5 year  2 years); Implementation is in significantly delays at the end of the period (caused by inner management/approval difficulties). - Project pipeline – Result of the level of coordination, cooperation, expert knowledge integration in governance structure. - Formal institutional decentralisation in 2010 – extended decentralisation form remained – slightly decreased or increased the level of decentralisation.

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Figure 1: Factors of the successful implementation and governance in CEEC. Source: Based on Ex-post evaluation (2012) Final Report, created by the author CONCLUSION A case cannot be understood without the concrete physical, social, cultural environment (attributes of a community) and the general model of governance, the evolution and characterisation of institutional arrangements (Ostrom 2005). A key aspect of addressing sustainability is simultaneously a problem of the co-ordination/integration of actions at different levels of governance (Atkinson – Klausen 2011). Experience shows that EPI not only depends on legislation and planning method, but also on the decision mechanism of actors. Apparently this planning period (2007–2013) was the first when SEA was made on a mass scale. Therefore the reasons for the negative aspects were the lack of experience, the bureaucratic institutional setting, and the fact that although environmental policy making and plan preparations were going on at the same time (concurrently or when the priorities in the plan had already been defined), the procedures were going on separately, and not in an iterative way. In ISPA/CF implementation strategic planning was underdeveloped in several cases and adjustment was needed to meet the requirements of ISPA/CF. In general it can be confirmed that the process was sometimes too complicated, the scope of responsibility was not unambiguous, and the continuous changes in the institutional and functioning framework caused significant delays.

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Overall fund management and governance, though requiring development especially at the beginning, was not found to be a significant obstacle to delivery. The areas with greatest impact on the performance of the system were (the lack of) strategic planning (especially) in the early stage, project development and procurement. REFERENCES 1. ATKINSON, R., KLAUSEN, J. E. (2011) - Understanding Sustainability Policy: Governance, Knowledge and the Search for Integration. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Volume 13. No. 3. pp. 231–251. 2. FALUDI, A. (2007) - Territorial Cohesion Policy and the European Model of Society. European Planning Studies, Volume 15. No. 4. pp. 567–583. 3. HEINELT, H., HELD, G., KOPP-MALEK, T., MATTHIESEN, U., REISINGER, E., ZIMMERMANN, K. (2006) - Governance for Sustainability. Conceptual Framework for the G-FORS Project. Working Paper. Hannover. 4. LAYARD, A., HOLDER, J. (2010) - From Territorial to Environmental Cohesion (July 21, 2010). http://ssrn.com/abstract=1646284 (Accessed on 15.03.2013) 5. LENSCHOW, A. (1997) - Variation in EC environmental policy integration: agency push within complex institutional structures. Journal of European Public Policy, 4, 1, pp. 109–127. 6. LUKOMSKA, J., SWIANIEWICZ, P., SZALEWICZ, M., WILAMOWSKA, M. 2008 – Actors, Governance and Knowledge in Implementation of EU Environment Policies in Poland. Working paper for G-Fors project. Univ. of Warsaw, p. 84. 7. MATTHIESEN, U. (2005) - KnowledgeScapes. Pleading for a Knowledge Turn in a Socio-spatial Research. Working Paper, Erkner, IRS. 8. MIHAJLOV, A. (2008): Regional Environmental Initiative: South-Eastern Europe (Balkan). Regional Environmental Cohesion Initiative, Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, Riga, Latvia: European Consortium for Political Research – Standing Group on the European Union, 25–27 September, 2008. 9. OSTROM, E. (2005) - Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press. 10. PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS I., VARJÚ V. (EDS.) (2009) - Governance for Sustainability - Two Case Studies from Hungary. Discussion Papers. No.73. 45 p. 11. PARTIDÁRIO, M., VOOGD, H. (2004) - An Endeavour at Integration in Environmental Analysis and Planning. In MILLER, M., DE ROO, G. (eds.) Integrating City Planning and Environmental Improvement. Practicable Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development (Aldershot, Ashgate) pp. 285–294.

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12. SADLER, B. (1996) - Environmental Assessment in a Changing World: Evaluating Practice to Improve Performance. Ottawa, Minister of Supply and Services Canada. 13. THEOPHILOU, V., BOND, A., CASHMORE, M. (2010) - Application of the SEA Directive to EU Structural Funds: Perspectives on Effectiveness. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Volume 30. No. 1. pp. 136–144. 14. VARJÚ V. (2008) - Environmental Respects of Regional Planning: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Hungary. In WAWGE, R.S. (ed): Strategic Environmental Assessment. Perspectives, applications and practices. The Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, India. pp. 47-58. CONTACT 1. Viktor Varjú, MTA KRTK Institute for Regional Studies, [email protected]

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ENVIRONMENT ANTAL Noémi, BARTHA Sándor, INCZE Réka ENVIRONMENTAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC INVESTMENTS IN COVASNA COUNTY Abstract. Renewable energy sources in electrical energy production means one way to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. The present paper describes a model for evaluation of the energy production of the photovoltaic solar energy conversion systems and it also establishes the environmental impacts of these systems. The article starts with a presentation of the solar energy potential for the application sites, it shows the incident global solar irradiation for the chosen locations. The paper indicates the cumulated energy demand in case of energy production concerning different photovoltaic modules used in solar park construction. Additionally, a case study is presented for one of the new solar photovoltaic parks built in Covasna County. The new installed PV plant capacity today is 40-50 kWp based on the ANRE-Romanian Energy Regularity Authority data, but it can be increased up to 40 MWp in this year. New PV plants can influence the environment, including the land aspects and the land use but they have an important role in reducing the CO2 emission. The paper also indicates the reduction of the electricity demand by recycling of PV products in manufacturing processes of the photovoltaic modules and shows the legal aspects for these recycling procedures. In the second part of the study, the actual electricity production is presented; it includes PV conversion systems in Romania and it compares this trend with the local investment market. In a separate chapter, a case study is presented regarding the administrative labyrinth and legal aspects for implementing a photovoltaic park. Finally, the study indicates the environmental impact of the target value from the perspective of the energy mix established by certain EU directives. Keywords: solar energy, photovoltaic, greenhouse gas emission, environmental impact, administrative issues INTRODUCTION The worldwide energy consumption presents a growing tendency; in 2000, this energy consumption was 397.40 quads (1quads = 2.93 1011 kWh) and from this energy, 75 % is consumed by the developed countries, while nearly 2 billion people from developing countries live without electricity. In 2005, the energy 126

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consumption reached 462 quads but the problem of the energy supplying of this 2 billion people is not solved. Based on IEA- US Energy Information Administration data the energy consumption is growing every year; based on these predicted values, the world energy consumption will reach 700 -800 quads in 2035. The energy production is an important element in carbon dioxide emission. The worldwide CO2 emissions predicted values can be seen in figure 1. This value shows a small increasing trend, in case of European OECD states. (Gual, 2003)

Figure 1. EU carbon dioxide emission (Gual, 2003) One way to reduce CO2 emissions are renewable energy sources. This paper is concentrated to the environmental impact of energy production based on photovoltaic conversion systems. Generally, environmental impact of PV solar energy conversion systems means land use, visual impacts, and pollution of local soil, water, air at end of the life cycle of the PV production. These effects can be negative effects at local, regional and global level. The evaluation of health impacts of the PV system is also necessary. In 2011, more than 69 GWp were the installed PV capacity and these produce 85 TWh electricity every year. This energy volume is sufficient to power annually the needs of over 20 million households. Europe is still a leader in the PV industry; more than 51 GW PV capacities are installed on this continent that is about 75 % of the world’s total solar photovoltaic cumulative capacity. In 2011, Italy was the top market of the year, with 9.3 GW connected PV installed capacities, followed by Germany (7.5 GW); these two markets were followed by France (1.7 GW), and United Kingdom (784 MW). Germany with more than 24 GW installed PV capacities is the leading 127

country in Europe. In this year, the European market presented a growing trend according to the statistical data presented by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. This year, 22 GWp greed connected new PV installations were installed in Europe. In this statistical report, Romania is present with only 3 MWp grids connected PV capacity; however this value presents a growing trend. The national Authorities planned to reach more than 160 MWp cumulative installed Photovoltaic capacities in 2013. Romania has an important PV market capacity. Those values can be 3000 MW in 2020 in Romania, which is mentioned in Paradigm Shift Scenario of the target of the European PV market. PV Parks will supply up to 12 % of the EU electricity demand by 2020, this represents about 380 GW of cumulative capacity. Recently, the energy produced by the Photovoltaic conversion systems’ is around 2% of the energy demand in European electricity mix, and it is roughly 4% of the peak demand. In Romanian energy production mix the PV fraction is present with a low percentage. This energy mix structure on 19 February, 2014 at 8:00 o’clock is presented in Table 1. Table 1. The electrical energy production system mix in Romania Energy source type used for electricity production

% in national electricity energy mix

Hydro energy

Energy production by different sources on 19 February, 2014 at 8. 00 hour 1913,00

Nuclear

1419,00

16,36

Wind

1157,00

13,34

Solid conventional energy sources, coal

2471,00

28,49

1631,00

18,80

75,00

0,86

Solar PV

8,00

0,09

Total

8674,00

100,00

Natural Gas and carbohydrates Biomass &Waste

22,05

Rrom the previous table we can see that the energy production based on classical energy sources is very high in Romania. The wind sector has an important proportion in the national energy mix. The energy from biomass and from PV parks starts to become auxiliary sources. The PV sector shows a growing trend; thus it achieves the energy production values presented in EU Action Plans. Consequently, Romanian authorities offer a favourable support framework for the investors. Legal framework concerning energy (published in 2011) indicates 6 green certificates for each MWh energy produced by this photovoltaic grid connected sources; today this value is reduced. The National Energy Action Plan for Romania indicated a target of 24% RES in the energy mix; this target can be 128

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achieved by installing important new RES capacities. It can be realized with new investors in photovoltaic market. According to Transelectrica database, the currently operating photovoltaic plants working means 150 MW; additionally, connection agreements were signed for 3000 MW by the end of 2013. Covasna County is present with 2 MW in this PV market; this value can increase up to 40 MWp in this year. The location of some PV parks can be seen on Figure 2.

Figure 2. Map of some solar park locations in Covasna County According to the Transelectrica database, the following solar parks are in authorized (Figure 3). Their total capacity is 21.5 MWp.

Figure 3. Location and capacity of the authorized PV projects planned to be built in Covasna County MATERIAL AND METHODS The challenge: land- file- project 129

The renewable energy sector offers excellent investment possibility. Many projects were started in solar energy sector but just a low number of projects were finalized. The explanation of the phenomena is the complicated process which leeds from a defined land trough a completed file to an accomplished project. Firstly, you need about 2 hectares land for 1 MW photovoltaic park. As a consequence, for an average size of 5 MW park you need approximately 10 hectares. The unclear ownership conditions are the biggest problem; very few areas have complete land register documents. The commonage usually has the appropriate status and size but in these cases the group of commoners and the strict rules (e. q. the land cannot be sold) make the progress complicated. If you find an appropriate land from the perspective of size and status, you have to pay attention to the accessibility (roads) and the distance from the electrical network too. Usually, the deal with the commoners ends up with a tenement contract for a long period (20- 25 years). The sale and purchase contract is more common if the land has a private owner. Secondly, you need a very thick file which requires some sense of locality in the administrative labyrinth. You have to collect a whole set of permits, licenses and certificates from different institutions, such as Environment Protection Agency, Fire Service, Local Authorities etc. Particular documents have certain validity periods, which mean some extra- deadlines to you. Additionally, you have to order a set of studies, such as topographical, technical, pedological. Of course, all these documents require their own money and time. Additional tasks occur when certain institutions force you to modify some parts of the projects, so you have to repeat several processes. The biggest trial is that the rules and requirements are unstable. Thirdly, the changing legal framework makes unstable the whole process. For example, the Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2013 introduced modifications in the supporting system of renewable energy. Among others, it states that those projects which are on agricultural land do not benefit of certain subsidies. Obviously, the majority of projects were planned on agricultural areas. Additionally, the process of taking out a land from agricultural usage is unclear. Consequently, many projects fail at this criterion. Many investors are discouraged by the unstable legal framework and some of them stand off. Life cycle analysis of the PV systems The present paper is based on the experience of authors in design and developing activity of the photovoltaic conversion systems. Background data is offered by the ICPE (Institute for Electrical Research), which has more than 30 years research and developing experience regarding energy issues. Generally, environmental impacts of the large scale PV systems can be investigated by life cycle analysis. 130

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The methodology offers tools for evaluation of the power plant (including the flow of materials) in different phases: production, construction, exploitation and disassembling. The method uses two streams; the upstream process contains the material flow and energy inputs for the construction of the power plant and the extraction, conversion and transport that may also include the impact of decommissioning and disassembling of the power plant. The structures applied in life cycle analysis (used in electricity sector) are presented in Figure 4. (Hagedorna et all 1997) MI EI MI

EI

MI

Production and transport of fuel

MR

Construction of power plant

MR MI EI

EL

EI

Operation of power plant

EL

MR

MI

Electr. transmission and distribution

EL

Decommissioning of power plant

MR MR EL

Electricity consumption

EL EI =

Energy Input

EL =

Energy Losses

MI =

Material Input

MR =

Material residuals

Figure 4. LCA model used in electricity sector (Source: Solarpraxis AG, Berlin, Germany) The downstream process includes the material flow and energy inputs regarding the phase from power plants to consumers; it included the associated losses in lines and transformers. In case of large scale PV systems all levels of the LCA model are necessary to be taken into account. Such study can be realised after a long monitoring period of solar parks. Generally, in phase of design of the PV systems, the greenhouse-gas emission is evaluated according to reference levels indicated by the National Authority (it is 566 gram CO2/kWh in electrical energy production). The designer has to take into account this constant and he needs to evaluate the energy production of the solar park every year. That value can be measured or estimated using different predictive models. For example, using the predictive energy production model of a 10 kWp PV grid connected system in conditions of the solar radiation potentials of the south part of Romania, it produces 12000 kWh energy/ year. The present paper indicates the energy balance and the reduction of the CO2 emission; the case refers to a 1000kWp in meteorological condition of the studied solar parks situated in Covasna County. The power generator system is built with Sicrystalline photovoltaic modules. The value of the CO2 emission is reduced by these solar parks with approximately 700000 kg CO2/year. The study presents the theoretical values concerning energy production of the PV parks.

Recycling of the PV modules There are three major reasons why it is important to develop procedures to recycle used PV modules: 131

- The need to capture toxic substances contained in many thin-film solar cells (as discussed in the previous section), - The chance to reduce the cumulated energy demand of PV modules significantly, - The use of recycled material might reduce the overall production costs of PV systems.

From the energy balance of the solar cell technologies, the most energy-intensive part of the production process of crystalline silicon PV modules is the generation of the silicone slices. Therefore, the recycling of used silicon from worn-out modules could reduce the CED of solar cells drastically. Table 2 illustrates the reduction of electricity demand for producing a crystalline silicon module if recycled silicon is used. (Timpe 2004). Table 2: Electricity demand for the production of silicon PV modules (regular vs. recycled) Eroare! Fără sursă de referinţă. Production of silicon wafer Recycling of silicon Production of solar cell Production of PV modules Total energy demand Specific electricity demand

New Si module 7.55 kWh el/wafer 0.65 kWh el/wafer 1.12 kWh el/wafer 9.32 kWh el/wafer 4.26 kWh el/Wp

Recycled Si module 0.1 kWh el/wafer 0.65 kWh el/wafer 1.12 kWh el/wafer 1.67 kWh el/wafer 0.85 kWh el/Wp

Recently, this results regarding production of the PV modules are not taken into account in evaluation of the energy balance for the PV conversion systems. That is included in module price. For the most types of solar cells, the frames and racks required assembling the modules; this is another important energy-consumption factor. Again, consistent recycling of these structures could reduce the energy demand of PV plants, thus improving their overall environmental performance. Within the production processes of solar cells and modules, recycling of production waste (semiconductor material, glasses and other by-products) is already common. However, with regard to recycling of used modules, only very limited activities have taken place so far although several research activities have been carried out in the past years. This is understandable, because the total volume of used modules available for recycling is still rather low. Since the world-wide boom for PV systems started between 1985 and 1989, and modules have a lifetime of 20 – 30 years. It is clear that we can expect a sharp increase in the volume of used PV modules in the next years. It is also clear, that recycling process in Romania can be started from 2040. The PV industry should be prepared for the task of recycling. (Messenger et all, 2010) The recycling strategies developed to date include: -

Separation of silicon wafers from the module compound using acids;

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-

Separation of glass, solar cells and metal fractions from modules by burning the polymer laminate; “Down-cycling” of frameless modules by melting the modules into FeSi, which can be used for steel production.

The following requirements for an optimal recycling system have been identified: -

High coverage of collection systems for used PV modules; Large volumes of recyclable material; Sorting the used modules by manufacturer; Separation of PV modules into their main fractions; Recycling of glass components; Recycling of silicone wafers for cell production.

The silicon based modules consist of 80% glass therefore the flat glass recycling industries can treat this product in their current recycling lines, due to similar morphology, structure and composition of the PV modules and flat glass products. (Boxwell, 2011) RESULTS Energy balance and reduction of the CO2 emission In this paper, the energy balance of the photovoltaic conversion system is presented for an 1000 kWp power grid connected system that is a reasonably practical size limit for studying the PV projects. The values of the monthly energy production of the conversion system are presented in Figure 6. That has been evaluated for the classical Si based modules. The figure 5 compares the energy production values of the solar parks, which will be developed in Covasna County.

Figure 5. The monthly energy production of the 1000 kWp power PV system, for different solar parks in Covasna County

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I have been evaluated the equivalent CO2 quantity for this energy conversion system using the conversion method indicated by the National Energy Authority (ANRE). The monthly values for the conversion system with classical Si based modules can be seen in Figure 6. From this data can be seen, that the CO2 emission is reduced monthly with 55000 kg in case of an 1000 kWp power conversion grid connected system. As a consequence, PV systems can reduce the CO2 emission significantly because their life period is 20-30 years.

Figure 6. The monthly CO2 emission reduction in case of the 1000 kWp power PV system for different solar parks in Covasna County Recycling results of PV modules We have to take into account the physical structure of the PV conversion systems, including mechanical parameters of the PV modules, such as dimension, mass, nr. of modules integrated in the conversion system. We received this data from an important photovoltaic installer, i.e. Renovatio Solar LTD. This integrator has realized different large scale PV grid connected application in south parts of Romania. The technical parameters of the studied system are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Technical parameter of a Solar Park, build by Renovatio Solar LTD

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Location

Singureni, Giurgiu County Scornicesti, Olt County Crevedia, Dambovita County Corabia, Olt County

Size of PV Park/operated by Renovatio

Cpacity, MWp

Nr. Of integrated PV Modules

Modules Capacity, Wp

Areea [mp]/module

1

1

4176

240

1.65

1

1

4176

240

1.65

2

2

8400

240

1.65

7

7

28602

245

1.65

Generally, from the PV modules the glass, the aluminium frame and different organic materials can be recycled. Today the first generation of PV modules should be recycled, they also have, in their structure, different heavy metals like Pb, Cd, Zn. One of PV modules from the old generation (its weight is about 22 kg) contain also 12.67 g Pb. If the modules are not properly stored, they can produce the following negative impacts on the environment and human health: leaching of lead, leaching of Cd, loss of conventional resources (primarily glass and aluminium) and loss of rare metals (Ag, In, Ga etc). In this paper, we also estimated the quantity of the main row materials that can be recycled at the end of the life of a solar park; the diagram can be seen in Figure 7.

Figure 7. The estimated weight of recycled materials in case of solar parks Conclusions

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The energy production with photovoltaic conversion of the solar energy is a clean technology and it has a positive impact on CO2 emission reduction. Theoretically, CO2 emission is reduced with 55000 kg/ month in case of an 1000 kWp grid connected PV system. This value can be used to evaluate the total CO2 reduction quantity, if the Romanian energetic industry achieves the target values concerning solar energy. The lifecycle analysis method can be used as evaluation technique concerning conversion systems. Some parameters, such as energy demand of Si based PV module production, are important values in the energy balances analysis. From this year, the PV modules are included in WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) Directives that reduces the negative environmental impact produced by the inappropriate storage. The lead and cadmium leaching can be reduced by limiting the quantity of improper storage in case of photovoltaic panels; so the negative environmental impact can be also reduced. PV modules contain different toxic components; thus, it is necessary to establish the way of a good management for each phase of their life cycle.

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REFERENCES 1. Gual, M., del Rio, P., Hernandez, F.: Update on the Policies shaping the current RES-E market, ADMIRE REBUS workshop “Renewable electricity market developments in the EU: Challenges for policy makers and opportunities for investors”, Brussels 2003 2. Hagedorn, G.: Kumulierter Energieaufwand und Aspekte zur Umweltverträglichkeit von Photovoltaik-Anlagen, in: Fraunhofer-ISE (Eds.): Begleitbuch zum Seminar Photovoltaik-Anlagen, Freiburg 1997 3. Messenger, A., Ventre, J.: Photovoltaic System Engineering, CRC Press N.Y. 2010 pp. 331-350 Sorensen, B., Renewable energy, AP Elsevier , 2010 pp. 817-849 4. Timpe, C. et al.: Umsetzungsaspekte eines Quotenmodells für Strom aus erneuerbaren Energien, Freiburg 2001 5. Boxwell, M. :Solar Electricity Handbook, Grenstream Publishing 2011 CONTACT 1. Bartha Sándor ICPE-Institute for Electrical Research, Romania, Bucharest, Splaiul Unirii 313, Tel +40215893300/Fax +40215893434, email: [email protected] 2. Antal Noémi, Incze Réka, Babeş Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Romania, Sf. Gheorghe, Stadionului Street, Nr. 14. Tel:+40732974985, email: [email protected], [email protected]

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BOROŞ Melania-Nicoleta, MICLE Valer ASPECTS CONCERNING CHOOSING OF PLANTS USED IN PHYTOREMEDIATION

Abstract. Phytoremediation uses different plants to extract, neutralize or stabilize various pollutants in soil. Not every plant reacts positively to the extraction of contaminants from soil, so at this moment a limited number of species capable to take part in the process of phytoremediation are known. This study presents aspects concerning the importance of choosing the right plants in the process. Plants have to be chosen carefully depending on the type of pollutant and the region where their destination is. Because each region has its own specificity, the chosen species should be native or adapted in the area where they will be located. In order to be used in the phytoremediation technologies, plants should gather as many characteristics as possible which will be discussed in the present study.

Keywords: contaminants, phytoremediation, plants. JEL codes: Q56 INTRODUCTION The success of phytoremediation is based on proper plant selection. When choosing the plants for a specific site, a complex analysis is recommended. The objectives of this study are to identify the main characteristics that can be taken into consideration when selecting the plant species used in phytoremediation and also to show what other factors are part of the process. The phytoremediation technology involves planting on a contaminated site one or more species that have the potential to extract contaminants from soil or groundwater. The process continues with harvesting the plants, composting, disposal in a landfill or incineration. The most important component of phytoremediation is the plant itself. (Kvesitadze et al., 2006) The selection of plants in phytoremediation depends on the mechanism that will be applied at site: phytoextraction, rhizofiltration, rhizodegradation, phytostabilization, phytodegradation, phytovolatilization etc. According to Keller (2006), plant selection will always be a compromise because no plant is perfect for a studied area. In his view, the ideal plant should adapt to site conditions, be contaminant tolerant, produce large biomass that can have high 138

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metal concentration in the shoots, grow continually and fast and also be easy to manage, dispose, recycle. The plant species that are selected must have the ability to treat the contaminants, and achieve the remedial purpose for redevelopment of the area. (EPA, 2001) CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANTS USED IN PHYTOREMEDIATION Choosing the plant species with appropriate characteristics is the main purpose of plant selection. Generally, the plants have to accumulate and degrade the contaminants and have a high detoxification potential. For each particular situation, plants should gather as many characteristics given the specific need, as follows: − Ability to uptake and degrade contaminants from soil or groundwater and accumulate organic and inorganic contaminants in cells and intracellular spaces; − Stimulate the multiplication of soil micro organisms by exudates excretion and secretion of enzymes that take part in the initial transformations of contaminants; − Contaminant-degrading or conjugating enzymes being present in the cells (oxidases, transferases, reductases etc.); − High resistance against contaminants; − Rooting depth and growth rate of the plants; − Endemic or non-agricultural plants; − Tolerance to soil salinity; − Adaptability to climate conditions. (Kvesitadze et al., 2006) Some important considerations in selecting of plant species and plant characteristics used for phytoremediation are included in EPA report (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Plant characteristics that should be taken into consideration when selecting the species that are used for phytoremediation at a site

The characteristics of plants that have the ability to accumulate heavy metals are analyzed by Guerra et al. (2011) and presented in Figure 2. It is noticed that plants suitable for phytoremediation cannot fulfil all the conditions. Hyperaccumulators are usually small and slow growing with limited population size and restricted 139

distribution, while high biomass producing species (trees, agricultural crops) take up small amounts of heavy metals compared to hyperaccumulators. Moreover, the trees’ advantage is their deep rooting that favours the metal uptake from deeper soil layers. Metal hyperaccumulation is not a common characteristic that can be found among higher plants. (McGrath et al., 2000)

Figure 2. The characteristics that plants need to possess in order to accumulate heavy metals

High heavy metals-enriched soils are hostile to plant growth, but they eventually become colonized. Metalliferous substrates usually have a low species diversity without trees for a long time. Sometimes metallophyte vegetation show an outstanding floristic composition on wide areas, which does not reveal the metal composition that exist in the soil. (Schat et al., 2000) Technologically speaking, the most important part of the plant is the root system. It has a major role in uptaking the contaminants from soil or groundwater by transformation and accumulation within it. The root system contributes directly to the success of pytoremediation, so it is certain that the type, depth and distribution 140

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of roots is extremely significant. It is also known that the root system that provides maximum contact with soil due to the high surface area of roots is the fibrous root system. The rooting depth is very different at each species. (Kvesitadze et al., 2006) After the analysis of contaminant distribution on site, plants should be chosen carefully regarding their root system and rooting depth (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Different combinations of root distribution and contaminated layers using Salix and Thlaspi as examples: I Optimal cases where the root system fits the layer II Cases in which the root system distribution is not properly chosen. (Keller, 2006) PLANTS USED IN PHYTOREMEDIATION

There is a large number of species that are used in phytoremediation. While some species are well-known and widely used, others are being tested in laboratory or field conditions. Examples of commonly-used species are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Examples of plant species used in phytoremediation

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Trees

Grasses

Legumes

Morus rubra L. Malus fusca (Raf.) Schneid Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneid Pinus taeda L. Populus deltoides X nigra Salix nigra Liriodendron tulipifera Taxodium distichum Betula nigra Quercus falcata

Agrostis tenuis cv. Goginan Andropogon gerardi Vit. Festuca arundinacea Mentha spicata Andropogon gerardi Schizachyrium scoparius Sorghastrum nutans Panicum virgatum Agropyron smithii Sorghum vulgare L.

Glycine max (L.) Merr. Lespedeza cuneata (Dumont) Medicago sativa L. Phaseolus vulgaris cv. “Tender Green” Oryza sativa L.

Aquatic and wetland plants Eichhornia crassipes Hydrocotyle umbellata Lemna minor Azolla pinnata Myriophyllum spicatum Myriophyllum aquaticum Nitella sp. Helianthus annuus L. Typha latifolia Phragmites sp.

Hyperacculators for metals Brassica juncea Thlaspi caerulescens Thlaspi rotundifolium ssp. Cepaeifolium Alyssum wulfenianum Brassica napus

The poplar family attracts special interest because of its perspectives in phytoremediation technology. This is because of the strong root system and also the high absorption ability. (Kvesitadze et al., 2006) Woody species like willows, cottonwood, usually possess the same qualities: rapid growth rates, deep roots and high transpiration rates and can even be used in the phytoremediation of the groundwater. (GWRTAC, 1997; EPA, 2001) At sites, grasses are often planted among woody species to provide an important amount of fine roots in the surface soil in order to bind and transform contaminants, to provide soil stabilization and erosion and great protection against wind-blown dust. (GWRTAC, 1997). The plantation distance between trees can take up precipitation, a fact that forces them to seek deeper the sources of water. (Landmeyer, 2012) Poor soils can be improved using legumes like alfalfa and peas to restore nitrogen. In sites contaminated with petrochemical wastes fescue or rye can be used with success. (GWRTAC, 1997) For creating wetlands applications, aquatic plants are used. There are two categories of them: emergent and submerged species. Emergent vegetation is easier to harvest and transpire water, while submerged species provide more biomass and lies entirely beneath the water’s surface being able to take up contaminants. (GWRTAC, 1997; EPA, 2001) Metal concentrations can exceed 1% of plant dry weight in hyperaccumulators and it is known that they can be exploited as a „biological cleanup technique” for 142

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different polluted media. (Baker et al., 2000) The key to hyperaccumulation is hypertolerance and the shoot metal concentration can be higher that the root levels. (Shao et al., 2010) When choosing between annual or perennial herbaceous plants, some advantages of the perennials must be taken into consideration. Perennial plants must be preferred because they would only be installed once, the root system is large enough to search for nutrients and it is extensive and long-lasting. Annuals require intensive agricultural management, more fertilizer and water, which is a strong disadvantage. (Landmeyer, 2012) There must be a special care to prevent the introduction of non-native species into different zones where they are not already present. New species can become a problem when are introduced to places where they do not belong. (EPA, 2001) Genetically modified plants are a promising direction because of the induced characteristics which can get closer to the ideal image of the plant used in phytoremedial applications. (Kvesitadze et al., 2006) THE PROCESS OF CHOOSING PLANTS IN PHYTOREMEDIATION In the process of plant selection, an interdisciplinary team should be founded. For the success of phytoremediation, a multidisciplinary approach is required. The professionals that can assist in the process of phytoremediation are: agronomists, botanists, ecologists, agricultural engineers, soil scientists, soil microbiologists, foresters, hydrogeologists, environmental/civil engineers, landscape architects, land reclamation specialists, nurseries and seed companies, food scientists, vegetable crop specialists, pomologists, agricultural extension agents or state university agricultural departments. The plant selection process (Table 2) is important to meet the objectives of phytoremediation. There is a possibility of using local or native plants as part of the remediation process combined with nonphytoremediative plants in order to add ecological values to the site. If nonnative plants are used, control techniques must be applied to assure the invasive spread does not occur. Phytoremediation is not always the best solution and can create ecological impacts for the environment, so negative impacts have to be avoided. (EPA, 2000) Table 2. The process of selecting plants for phytoremediation (EPA, 2000) 1. Identify phytoremediation technology and remedial goals. 2. Gather site information: location; temperatures; range of average annual minimum temperature; precipitation: amount, timing; length of growing season; amount of sun/shade; soil texture, salinity, pH, fertility, water content, structure (hardpans etc.); contaminant type, concentration, form; site-specific conditions or considerations;

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identify plants growing in contaminated portion of site (optional); identify local plants and crops (optional). 3. Identify important criteria for plant selection: - General: disease resistance; heat tolerance; cold tolerance; insect tolerance; drought resistance; salt tolerance; chemical tolerance; stress tolerance; legume/non-legume; annual/biennial/ perennial; cultural requirements (seed pre-treatment before germination; planting method, timing, density, depth; mulching, irrigation, soil pH control, fertilization, protection from pests and disease; fallen leaves, debris; harvesting requirements; labour and cost requirements should not be excessive); invasive, undesirable, or toxic characteristics; plant/seed source; establishment rate; reproduction method/rate; growth rate/biomass production; competitive or allelopathic effects; value of plant as cash crop. - Phytoremediation-related: demonstrated efficacy of plant; phytotoxicity of contaminant; root type and shape; root depth; contaminant depth and distribution; deciduous/non-deciduous; monoculture vs. mixed species; native vs. non-native; growing season; sterile/male/female; plant rotation; planned or natural plant succession. 4. Match above criteria with list of available/proposed plants: select all appropriate candidates (eliminate all inappropriate plants); conduct detailed evaluation of remaining candidates; conduct cost/benefit analysis of top candidates; (plant costs; plant effectiveness in reaching goal; plant value - cash crop); conduct preliminary studies to assess germination, survivability, and biomass (germination screening studies for phytotoxicity; small-scale greenhouse or laboratory chamber studies; field plot trials). 5. Select plant and implement phytoremediation: monitor and evaluate plant growth and phytoremediation success; re-evaluate plant selection on basis of observations; reseed/replant as necessary with same or different plant. CONCLUSIONS

Before choosing the proper plants and the proper phytoremediation technique, additional information should be gathered as much as possible. Any type of information is very valuable in making the right decision in the process of plant selection. The plant that has the right characteristics listed for a given situation will be effective and will fulfil its goal. A special care should be taken in monitoring the plants and the long-term effects that they have on the environment, especially when the studied area is placed in residential or recreational zones. REFERENCES 1. ASHRAF M., OZTURK M., AHMAD M.S.A. (2010) - Plant Adaptation and phytoremediation. Springer, Dordrecht. 2. BAKER A.J.M., MCGRATH S.P., REEVES R.D., SMITH J. A.C. (2000) Metal Hyperaccumulator Plants: A Review of the Ecology and Physiology of a Biological Resource for Phytoremediation of Metal-Polluted Soils. In: Phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. CRC Press LLC, Florida. 3. EPA (2000) - Introduction to Phytoremediation (EPA/600/R-99/107). National Risk Management Research Laboratory, US. 144

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4. EPA (2001) - Brownfields Technology Primer: Selecting and Using Phytoremediation for Site Cleanup (EPA 542-R-01-006). Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5102G), US. 5. GOLUBEV I.A., 2011 - Handbook of phytoremediation. Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York. 6. GUERRA F., GAINZA F., PEREZ R., ZAMUDIO F. (2011) Phytoremediation of heavy metals using poplars (Populus spp): a glimpse of the plant responses to copper, cadmium and zinc stress. In : Handbook of phytoremediation. Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York. GWRTAC, 1997. Phytoremediation. Prepared by: Schnoor J.L.,Technology Evaluation Report TE-98-01, GWRTAC Series, Pittsburgh. 7. KELLER C. (2006) - Factors limiting efficiency of phytoextraction at multimetal contaminated sites. In: Phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soils. NATO Science Series, Series IV: Earth and environmental sciences, vol. 68, The Netherlands. 8. KVESITADZE G., KHATISASHVILI G., SADUNISHVILI T., RAMSDEN J.J. (2006) - Biochemical mechanisms of detoxification in higher plants. Basis of Phytoremediation. Springer, Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 9. LANDMEYER J.E. (2012) - Introduction to phytoremediation of contaminated groundwater. Historical foundation, hydrologic control, and contaminant remediation. Springer, Dordrecht. 10. MCGRATH S.P., DUNHAM S.J., CORELL R.L. (2000) - Potential for Phytoextraction of Zinc and Cadmium from Soils Using Hyperaccumulator Plants. In: Phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. CRC Press LLC, Florida. 11. SHAO H.-B., CHU L.-Y, NI F.-T., GUO D.-G., LI H., LI W.-X. (2010) Perspective on Phytoremediation for Improving Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soils. In: Plant Adaptation and phytoremediation. Springer, Dordrecht. 12. SCHAT H., LLUGANY M., and BERNHARD R. (2000) - Metal-Specific Patterns of Tolerance, Uptake, and Transport of Heavy Metals in Hyperaccumulating and Nonhyperaccumulating Metallophytes. In: Phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. CRC Press LLC, Florida. 13. TERRY N., BANUELOS G. (2000) - Phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. CRC Press LLC, Florida. 14. EPA: Evaluation of Phytoremediation for Management of Chlorinated Solvents in Soil and Groundwater, US. http://www.rtdf.org/public/phyto/chlor_solv_management.pdf (accessed on: 01.02.2014) CONTACT 1. Melania-Nicoleta BOROS, Tehnical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering, e-mail: [email protected] 2. Valer MICLE, Tehnical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering, e-mail: [email protected]

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FAZAKAS József1, BENEDEK Csilla2, FAZAKAS Enikő 3* RECYCLING OF ZRO2 WASTES IN METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY Abstract The common raw materials used in glass manufacturing are quartz sand (SiO2), limestone (CaCO3) and caustic soda (NaOH), the mixture of which is melt industrially in a tube furnace at 1430-1450oC. At this temperature the melted material is extremely aggressive, attacking and corroding the ZrO2-based wall of the furnace. Thus, the wall is thickening gradually and will not be capable anymore to fulfil properly its thermal insulation function. Due to this reason, the regular replacement- usually every 3 years - of the lining is needed. The bricks forming the lining are considered waste after their replacement. (Eventually, after re-cutting, they can be used for laboratory purposes, but such a use is rather unprofitable). The subject of the present paper is recycling of ZrO2 wastes in metallurgical industry. After the removal of glass deposits and grinding performed by a special, tailor-made technology, these materials can be utilized as the main additives of composites.

Keywords: glass melting, tube furnace, zircon-containing refractories, casting pot, metallurgy

JEL codes: Q Environment and Ecological Economics INTRODUCTION Although, due to globalization and to the increasing cheap sales from the Far East, the Romanian heavy industry has seen a considerable decline in the past decades, still, there are some important industrial centres that are worth attention. Such a centre is the Metallurgical Works in Resita, where the activity requires refractory products. These products (pieces) are provided from import, at considerably high price, that increases the costs of raw materials and thus the overall budget. In order to find a possibility to increase profit, an alternative source and an efficient method for the manufacturing of two important products are needed: block support for immersion pipe (code Z+A) and bushing supports, which are essential accessories in metallurgical industry. Based on the premises described above, this paper investigates the applicability of ZrO2 wastes as raw materials in the metallurgical industry, ensuring not only cost improvement, but representing the advantage of an environmental-friendly solution as well.

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The verification was made at Metallurgical Works of Resita ( TMK Resita) by the agency of Seven Group Manasia. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION The ZrO2–containing refractory bricks wastes resulting from demolition of tubtype melting ovens were collected from glass factories (see Fig. 1)

Figure 1. ZrO2–containing refractory bricks wastes

They were recycled as „bushing supports” and „block supports for immersion pipes (code Z+A)”, as presented in the figures below:

Figure 2. Bushing support

Figure 3. Block support for immersion pipe

The requirements from the recipient (TMK Reşiţa) are listed as follows: Nr.

Parameters

M.U.

Table 1. Bushing support

Block support for immersion

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1. 2. 3. 4.

Dimensions Density ρa Al2O3 content Temperature of use

mm kg/dm3 % o C

According to figure 2. min.2.50 min.79 max. 1400

pipe According to figure 3. min.3.00 min.83 max. 1725

Figure 4. The technological flow

In products imported by TMK Reşiţa the aggregate of the mold is made of tabular alumina with a granulation of 0.6 – 5.0 mm. In order to replace this aggregate by zirconium-containing refractory wastes and maintain the required density, the percentage of ZrO2 was calculated based on the ratio of molecular weights:

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MAl2O3 = 102 ; MZrO2 = 123 102/123 = 0.83 For bushing supports..................................0.83 x 79% = 65% ZrO2 For block supports for immersion pipes......0.83 x 83% = 70% ZrO2 Maintaining this percentage of added ZrO2 wastes and testing several compositions, the technological flow presented in figure 4 was found to be the optimal one. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1. Technological and ecological evaluation The products made according to the technological flow (see fig. 2 and 3) are presented in figures 5 and 6.

Figure 5. Bushing support realized using aggregate ZrO2 wastes

Figure 6. Block support for immersion pipe realized using aggregate ZrO2 wastes

The parameters of the products obtained were compared with those of the reference sample provided by TMK Reşiţa as presented in table 2. Nr.

1.

Parameters

Dimensions

M.U.

mm

Table 2 Bushing support Required

Determined

According to fig. 2

Respected

Block support for immersion pipe Required Determined According to fig. 3

Respected

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2. 3. 4.

Density ρa Al2O3 content Temperature of use

kg/dm3 % o

C

min.2.50 min.79

2.53 65% ZrO2

min. 3.00 min. 83

3.12 70% ZrO2

max. 1250

Controlled by TMK Reşiţa

max. 1725

Controlled by TMK Reşiţa

Figures 7 and 8 illustrate the structure of the composite in bushing supports and the block support for immersion pipe, respectively (micrographies, magnified 3x). A uniform distribution of the aggregate granules is proven, this provides both the necessary mechanical resistance and the desired refractory properties for the products.

Figure 7. Structure of the composite in bushing supports, treated thermally at 1300oC (magnified 3x)

Figure 8. Structure of the composite in block support for immersion pipe, treated thermally at 1300oC (magnified 3x)

TMK Reşiţa performed the application tests in daily steel production on two pieces of each type of the made products. Their aims were to diversify their suppliers and to reduce productions costs. The results of these tests are presented in table 3, compared with the reference data measured on the import sample. Nr.

Pieces tested

Table 3. Heating time (min.)

Min/sequence

1. 2.

H-1 import Z+A

381 369

816 791

Steel casting capacity (tons) 872.74 866.58

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Extract from the technical experimental document no.29/17.02.2014 issued by TMK Reşiţa: “The visual inspection of the supports after casting didn’t result in appearance of fissures or cracks in any of the cases, whatever composition applied. Also, there were no steel infiltrations between the immersion tube and the supports.” 2. Economical evaluation In order to evaluate the efficiency of ZrO2 wastes revaluation in metallurgical industry, the SWOT analysis of this activity was done as shown in table 4.

The achievement of a product and a long-term, cost-efficient technology is determined by several factors, as it results from the cause and effect diagram (Ishikawa – fishbone), figure 9.

Figure 9. Presentation of factors determining effectiveness by Ishikawa chart (fishbone) Table 4.

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Strengths 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

Realisation of special refractory and anticorrosive products containing zirconium wastes as additives, usable in metallurgical industry in molten steel media at 17001750oC Products (pieces) have a composite-type structure, having a mullite-type matrix. Products realised represent a high-level revaluation of the wastes. No special installations or equipment are needed for obtaining the products, normal equipment used in the industry of refractory ceramics can be used. Currently, such pieces – casting pots and bushing supports – are provided only from imports, at considerably high price.

Weaknesses 1. 2. 3.

Opportunities 1. 2. 3.

Real opportunities of collaboration with other metallurgical units. Opportunities of extending the range of usable raw materials. Participation in similar European projects.

The glass layer from the surface of the zirconium blocks used have to be removed. Removal of the glass deposition is rather demanding, it has to be carried out manually. Product revaluation has not been prepared yet, a strong marketing policy is needed, both at national and international level.

Threats 1. 2.

3. 4.

Uncertain financial background due to the actual economical crisis. Eventual suspending of the production in glass factories wherefrom the ZrO2-containing bricks are procured. Poor sale of the obtained products due to inappropriate advertisement. Possible competition from foreign companies.

In the case when all the components of the molds are kept unchanged, except from the replacement of tabular Al2O3 by ZrO2 wastes considerable savings are achieved, as the costs for 1 tone of tabular Al2O3 = 850 EUR, while the price of 1 tone of chopped

ZrO2 wastes with the desired granulation = 200 EUR.

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CONCLUSIONS 1. The aim of the present work was to realise products for metallurgical industry, resisting to temperatures as high as 1725oC, respectively 1400oC, in a molten steel medium. There are some recipes based on tabular alumina which fulfilled the needed requirements, but their price is very high. We were able to reduce this by replacing tabular alumina with ZrO2 wastes. 2. Revaluation of ZrO2-based waste refractory bricks in metallurgical industry proved to be efficient both from economical and ecological point of view. These wastes represent a cheap and easily accessible raw materials on the condition that to be properly prepared. 3. The technology of products containing ZrO2 wastes don’t need special equipment, the technological flow is similar to those applied on a routine basis in the refractory industry, also, it is easily controllable and reproducible. 4. Realisation of the products presented and their application is an eloquent example of collaboration between small enterprises and big industry: Chemi Ceramic F Ltd. – Seven Group Ltd. – TMK Reşiţa SA. 5. The product range can be extended and may represent a strong basis for production-oriented small enterprises. 6. Using the ZrO2 wastes, as described above, contributes to the protection of the environment (liquidation of dumps and landfills) and completion of raw materials by providing a cheaper, easily available additive. REFERENCES 1. MERCE E., C. C. MERCE, DIANA DUMITRAŞ (2008) - Concentration of land ownership through plots stock exchange. Lucrări ştiinţifice, seria I, VOL. X (2) - ISSN: 1453-1410, pp. 41-47, Timişoara. CONTACT 1. Fazakas József, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Sfantu Gheorghe Extension, Romania, [email protected] 2. Benedek Csilla, Semmelweiss University Budapest, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, Dept. of Dietetics and Nutrition Sciences, Hungary [email protected] 3. Fazakas Enikő, Chemi Ceramic F Ltd Sf. Gheorghe, Romania, [email protected]

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KELEMEN Antonia Izabella NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN INTEGRATING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract. The aim of this study is to examine the way in which new means and methods as well as applied technology can be used in the study of intercultural communication. Because all successful communication presumes perspective-taking skills and reciprocal understanding among the participants, we study whether the students are able to reach in reciprocal interaction and thus create educationally relevant high-level discussion with the use of new tools. The theme has its foundation in socio-constructivist learning theories, one of the most important principles of which is the idea of apprenticeship in thinking and creating links. The paper aims to show the facilities and difficulties encountered in the process of acquiring a foreign language, be it a first or second foreign language on basis of socio-cultural elements combined with the use of new technological means available.

Keywords: intercultural competence, language learning, new technologies, learning theories.

INTRODUCTION Culture has long been seen as a fundamental component of language learning. While its importance is universally recognized, there is no consensus on what the term encompasses, how culture should be integrated into language instruction, or on what role technology can and should play in that process. In this article, we will have in view the latter issue, at the ways in which technology can support teachers and learners as they seek to understand language through culture and culture through language. In particular, we will look at the growing interest in moving beyond traditional representations of culture in the classroom (i.e., the cultural products and traditions of the target language) to the concept of intercultural communication competence ( ICC), defined by Alvino Fantini as “the complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself” (2005, p. 1). In addition to looking at the most common approach to providing intercultural experience and learning to students — through telecollaboration — we will also look at new opportunities afforded by technological change. WHAT’S MEANT COMPETENCE?

BY

INTERCULTURAL

COMMUNICATION

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For some time now, there has been a recognition that in language instruction culture – specific learning — focused on one particular culture — needs to be supplemented by culture-general learning: the ability to interact effectively with individuals from different cultures in a variety of contexts. What is usually referred to as intercultural communication competence was defined by Byram (1997) as a series of five savoirs (knowledge - abilities), as summarized by Schenker (2012): “knowledge of self and other, attitudes of openness and curiosity, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness” (p. 450). The need for this kind of competence in language learning has been highlighted by its inclusion in national standards for the United States (the ACTFL Guidelines) and Europe (the Common European Framework for Languages ). Despite these official endorsements, it’s not the case that ICC has become a fixed and universally accepted component of instructed language learning . Intercultural communication competence is taught as the exclusive focus or as a major topic in courses in teacher education, mass communications, management, anthropology, international studies, social psychology, and the health sciences. Elements of intercultural dynamics do arise typically in these language classes, but in an incidental rather than systematic way, and these are mostly restricted to the culture of the target language. If one were to ask a language teacher about the absence of ICC in basic language instruction, the likely response would be that it’s a important topic, but it’s just not possible to find the time to include it. The notion of a fixed national culture, aligned to political entities, with widely shared national characteristics, is normally the backdrop for the language materials presented. The topics are presented as individual facets of the culture—snapshots of everyday life, family relationships, festivals, food, and so forth—which typically require low levels of involvement on the part of students. A frequently stated goal of ICC is to enable learners to go in the knowledge, skills, and sensitivity to be cultural ambassadors and mediators, able and comfortable in the role of interpreters among cultures, including their own. Conversations are between monolingually presented native speakers who are intent on communicating information and who do so in a coherent and logical way, with rare interruptions or repetitions, while exhibiting polite turn-taking and grammatical correctness. Such dialogs provide the model speech patterns that teachers try to instil in their students. Unfortunately such human and linguistic behaviour does not correspond to the real world. Linguists know well that real speech often has little to do with information exchange, and is full of repetitions,

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misunderstandings, formulaic exchanges, half- completed utterances, and ungrammatical sentences. Teaching German, for example, without some representation and discussion of the wide inclusion of English terms in all spheres of everyday life or without mentioning the growing influence of Turkish in youth culture is to paint a quite unrealistic picture of German language and society today. Teachers may feel that inclusion of such topics dilutes the image of the target culture, or they might not feel sufficiently informed to discuss them with students. This is clearly an area in which the integration of technology is key, providing through the Web wide access to contemporary cultural artefacts and authentic native language use. Using the Web to provide speech examples in different contexts can be important in attuning students to the idea that speakers do not have a uniform way of using language that is the same in all situations. This is likely to seem obvious to language professionals, but for monolingual students it can be a revelation, as many have never had occasion to analyze language before. In looking at examples of real life speech, getting students to notice how their own language varies from native speaker practices can be an important step. One of those areas is how cultural functions like thanking and expressing regret are carried out. In German it’s often the modal particles (like ja or doch) that add relatively little semantically but provide flavor, strengthening or attenuating a statement, among other possible functions. The Hofstede model has been criticized for its essentialism, reducing vibrant and fluid cultures to a few static characteristics, while ignoring regional, ethnic, and personal distinctiveness and cultural change. Nowadays using the Internet to connect their students with groups of willing native speakers offers the best opportunity to move beyond the textbook. Telecollaborative projects have the potential for significant language learning as well as an increase in knowledge in both culture - specific and culture - general areas. In recent years, a large number of case studies have been published, which discuss the various tools and approaches (email exchange, tandem learning, discussion forums, chat sessions, text messages) from the perspective of cultural learning. Most studies on this topic point to the need for advance preparation in order to avoid intercultural conflict and encourage deeper cultural insights. One of the techniques used goes back to the use of word associations by participants on both sides, to provide a means for self- reflection about one’s own culture and to establish a useful cultural footing for the exchange. Typically, this is done by presenting terms such as family or freedom and having students write their associations. Another way to work with cultural word associations might be data

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virtualization such as tag clouds. Clusters of words to describe particular terms could be compared to demonstrate differences in frequency of use. There is a consensus about the importance of participants reflecting on aspects of their own culture before engaging in exchanges. Despite preparatory work, telecollaboration projects can result in misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and even reinforcement of negative stereotypes. The problems may arise from insufficient language skills, lack of knowledge of the other culture, or individual insensitivity. It’s also the case that online speech lacks the paralanguage and non -verbal clues that can be vital to understanding speakers’ real intent. There are conventions in online writing to compensate— punctuation (!), emoticons (sad face), net speak (lol) or typing in all caps (I'M SHOUTING) — but they fade out in comparison to the variety and power of human nonverbal communication. One method that provides at least facial expressions and paralanguage is to use synchronous video. Video-based language exchanges have become more common in recent years. Teletandem exchanges allow for communication that more closely resemble faceto-face conversations. Today such video-based pairing can be done with Skype or similar free or inexpensive teleconferencing tools. Typically teletandem sessions will provide both learners opportunity to practice their target language equally. Being face- to- face on screen is, of course, no guarantee of effective communication. Students may have excellent pronunciation, a good vocabulary, and a thorough knowledge of grammar, but may lack the cultural understanding to be able to decipher the actual meaning of particular utterances. This may be due to not understanding idiomatic expressions, failing to perceive contextual changes in meaning, or not recognizing tonal variations such as humour or irony. It may also be due to pragmatic transfer, the tendency to assume that nonliteral meanings of words and expressions carry across languages. Speech in the language classroom is mostly decontextualized, presented without the benefit of knowing the personal, professional, or regional character of the speakers. In real world communication, cultural identities play a major role in shaping how language is used. More attention in language instruction at the intermediate and advanced levels to pragmatics, including the basics of speech act theory (i.e., how apologies, requests, disagreements are expressed), would be helpful in improving the cultural component of students’ language skills as well as providing a means to decipher unexpected misunderstandings and conflicts that arise from conversational exchanges. Misunderstandings of cross-cultural pragmatics can lead to stereotypes and cultural clichés: differing expressions of politeness or conventions for using titles and honorifics, for example, can be taken as indications of general rudeness inherent in the target culture. Communication failures in telecollaborative projects can be useful teachable moments: making students aware of the dynamics of real language use can be very helpful in leading students to see the need to improve their own communication skills. Learning about the variables involved in meaning

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making is an important step in language learner autonomy and in knowing how to approach learning additional languages. MOBILITY AND INTEGRATION: NEW WAYS FOR EXPLORING ICC Students may need to step back from intercultural exchanges or experiences within the target culture to reflect on the significance of the encounters. Personal or shared journals, learner logs, or blogs can play this role. Reflective journals offer a means to analyze experiences and feelings and view one’s own experience in the context of other encounters or in conjunction with cohorts. Providing students with examples of blogs or journals — particularly those from students having completed a successful study abroad experience — can provide helpful modelling, to encourage moving beyond simplistic descriptions and superficial reactions. For students who are experiencing first - hand a different culture, this can be a personally disorienting and potentially disturbing experience. Given the emotional investment, it may be advisable to give students the choice of writing in their native language, while suggesting that they gradually move to more target language use. Allowing them to code - switch at will may result in more creative language use. The individualized expression of a journal or blog can be a liberating experience, allowing students both to explore cultural insights and experiment with the target language. Claire Kramsch points to the benefits of learners engaging in playful, creative use of language (2009). We might also encourage students to write a poem or a story to express their thoughts and feelings, actions that take advantage of increasing comfort levels with the language. Likewise, use of idiomatic expressions and even of proverbs could be encouraged — wonderful ways of combining language and culture.. For students with artistic inclinations, making drawings or creating comics might be of interest. License should be given to allow students to personalize and customize, following their individual interests and preference; this could be highly motivating and give students a real sense of pride and ownership. In recent years, it has become possible for students to use mobile devices to write blog posts or journals. This showed that students studying abroad develop greater cultural awareness through gathering information for blog posts. Such mobile blogging allows for situated learning with a more direct and immediate connection between the encounter and a blog post. Mobile devices also, whether used locally or abroad, are ideal vehicles for action - oriented language learning, which could be project -based or exploratory in nature. The use of mobile apps that record GPS determined locations, together with still images or videos taken with built -in cameras, could be used to create a narrated tour which might include brief video interviews as well. More extensive projects could involve oral history or digital storytelling. In the United States, such projects need not be done abroad, as one 158

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could quite easily (for Spanish) or with somewhat more effort (for all other languages) find native speaker interviewees for such projects, who may well be eager to share their experiences. Lee (2011) has found that these sorts of ethnographic interviews, combined with blogs, can be quite effective in facilitating ICC. Most smart phones in use today have excellent video capture quality and surprisingly good sound quality; many also provide in- device video editing. Having students produce such projects allows for individualized options and creates encounters that are likely to be both linguistically and culturally rich. One could easily imagine this as a service learning component in an intermediate or advanced language class. Deardorff (2011) provides some suggestions on how to use service learning in this way to foster ICC and points to the fact that by its nature service learning projects tend to bring students into contact with individuals quite different from them in cultural backgrounds. Another option for using the built-in camera capabilities of mobile devices that is of particular linguistic and cultural interest is capturing signs and advertisements. Signs can not only be photographed, but with the appropriate app such as Google Goggles, text can be scanned and recognized. Some apps such as Word Lens, can also translate the text into other languages. This can lead to interesting crosscultural investigations into the particular linguistic devices found, such as the use of multiple languages. English, for example, can often be found in advertisements in cultures in which it is not the first language, as a way to indicate modernity and hipness. The semiotic study of multilingual public signs and messages— particularly in urban settings—forms the basis for research in linguistic landscaping, which looks at the linguistic and cultural dimensions of language use in public spaces. Blommaert and Huang (2010) provide a fascinating analysis of a homemade Chinese sign displayed in a private home’s window in Antwerp, advertising an available room to rent. The growing interest in the contextual use of language is reflected in the additional environmental terms used frequently in recent years in applied linguistics and related fields: language ecology, green grammar, geosemiotics, sustainable language learning, metrolingualism, polycentricity a.s.o. This is consistent with the movement away from thinking about language as having fixed cultural and linguistic boundaries and towards the idea of language arising from its local, contextualized use. The importance of context for language use is evident in the concept of cultures of use as a way to think about the varieties of different language forms in online writing (Thorne, 2003). As an example, Chun’s recent study (2011) discusses the quite different kinds of language use evident in forum posts and chat messages. One of the benefits of the use of mobile devices for intercultural learning is the possibility of connecting remote students (on a field trip or engaged in study abroad) with cohorts at the home location. The direct cultural experiences recorded in such projects can receive analysis and 159

contextualization by being shared with colleagues. The contextualized encounters can then form the basis of ethnographic studies. In this way cultural immersion is used to http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/ texthttp://questvisual.com/us/http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/upload/d7cb5caf8045-40e3-9a5891b5f37aa8f0_TPCS_45_Blommaert.pdfftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/ka3 /eat/RAFT.pdfhttp://www.academia.edu/1197178/LOCH_supporting_mobile_lang uage_learning_outside_classroomsbuild a systematic view of the target culture that is based on more than one- off personal encounters which may not be culturally representative. ASSESSMENT OF INTERCULTURAL LEARNING One of the difficulties in developing a widely accepted assessment instrument for intercultural learning is the necessity of agreeing on what it is that should be tested. A central question in that debate is the role of language. In today’s educational environment learning needs to be measurable in some way. That is easier to do with conventional language communicative competence than it is with intercultural learning, which is not easy to quantify. Direct measures through multiple-choice or Likert style testing can assess theoretical knowledge but may not be reliable predictors of actual performance in intercultural encounters. In educational settings indirect measures predominate, principally through self -assessment (portfolios, journals). Direct observation is not usually feasible, although depending on the situation it may be possible to obtain reports or feedback from others, such as host families, supervisors, or other participants. Relying on self-assessment can be a positive factor in encouraging greater effort in analyzing, comparing, and reflecting. On the other hand, in some cases students may not be particularly forthcoming; in other cases, they may not have enough life experience to make appropriate judgments and comments. In the United States, business communities and the health care industry—for whom cultural competence and diversity training are increasingly important—tend to prefer instruments which attempt to objectify assessment. A listing of the various tools gives a brief description of each as well as a link for additional information. Most of the instruments listed, however, are unlikely to be used in education, as they can be quite expensive. The widely used Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), for example, requires not only a payment for the test and accompanying instructions, but also a cost per person ($10), and mandatory certification through a three-day seminar costing between $1200 and $1500. Educators have developed their own instruments for local use, which in some cases they are willing to share for free. One of the free instruments is the Assessment of Intercultural Competence (AIC) by Alvino Fantini of SIT International, created originally for use in the Experiment in International Living. As is the case for most instruments, the AIC 160

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relies principally on self-assessment, but in contrast to most of the commercial instruments, it includes language proficiency. The AIC is designed to be used before, during and after intercultural encounters. Another assessment inventory that includes language proficiency as well is a recent European project, the Intercultural Competence Assessment (INCA), which goes beyond self-assessment to include text and video scenarios to which assesses must respond. Most professionals advocate a multifaceted assessment plan, combining possible use of self- assessment inventories, reports from third parties, interviews, scores on summative assessments (questions based on case studies or hypothetical scenarios), and some kind of reflective writing. Input from a variety of possible sources is built into the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters from the Council of Europe, which is in the process of adding a companion tool for incorporation of visual media. Renate Schultz (2007) argues in favour of portfolios to measure ICC, as they combine formative and summative assessment. She provides a template for a “Culture Learning Portfolio.” A portfolio has the benefit of showing development over time. RESOURCE LIST Assessment of Intercultural Competence •Understanding and Assessing Intercultural Competence: A Summary of Theory, Research, and Practice(an extensive discussion) •Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters(Council of Europe) •INCA project(Council of Europe) •Assessment Tools of Intercultural Communicative Competence(Alvino Fantini) •Intercultural Training and Assessment Tools(from the Intercultural Communication Institute) •Language On Line Portfolio Project (LOLIPOP)(a European project) •Intercultural Development Inventory •Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters

http://www.intercultural.org/tools.phphttp://www.idiinventory.com/http://www.ha waii.edu/sls/uhwpesl/26%281%29/Norris.pdfhttp://www.sit.edu/SITOccasionalPap ers/feil_appendix_g.pdfhttp://www.incaproject.org/http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/autobi ography/default_en.asp REFERENCES 1. BLOOMAERT, J. (2013). Citizenship, language, and superdiversity: Towards complexity. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies 45

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2. A. & JENKS, C. (2011). ‘Is it okay to eat a dog in Korea...like China?’ Assumptions of national food-eating practices in intercultural interaction. Language and Intercultural Communication 11 (1),41–58 3. BROOK, J. (2011). The affordances of YouTube for language learning and teaching. Hawaii Pacific University TESOL Working Paper Series 9(1, 2), 37–56.

4. http://www.carla.umn.edu/culture/bibliography/http://www.carla.umn.edu/http: //llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/actionresearch.pdfhttp://llt.msu.edu/issues/june20 11/actionresearch.pdfhttp://llt.msu.edu/vol12num3/belzvyatkina.pdfhttp://www .tilburguniversity.edu/upload/d7cb5caf-8045-40e3-9a5891b5f37aa8f0_TPCS_45_Blommaert.pdfhttp://www.tilburguniversity.edu/uplo ad/d7cb5caf-8045-40e3-9a5891b5f37aa8f0_TPCS_45_Blommaert.pdfhttp://www.kcl.ac.uk/ldc 5. BRYAM, M. (1997).-Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. 6. CANAGARJAH, S. (2006).- Changing communicative needs, revised assessment objectives: Testing English as an international language. Language Assessment Quarterly 3(3), 229–242. 7. CHUN, D. (2011). -Developing intercultural communicative competence through online exchanges. 8. CORBETT, J. (2010). Intercultural language activities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 9. DEARDORFF, D. (2011). Assessing intercultural competence. New Directions for Institutional Research 2011(149), 65–79. 10. FANTINI, A. (2005). - About intercultural communicative competence: A construct. Retrieved from 11. http://www.sit.edu/SITOccasionalPapers/feil_appendix_e.pdf 12. HOPFSTEDE, G. (1980).- Culture's consequences: International differences in workrelated values. Beverly Hills,CA: Sage Publications 13. JANDT, F. (2012). - An introduction to intercultural communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 14. KRAMSCH, C. (2009). - The multilingual subject., Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 15. LOPEZ- BARRIOS, M. (2012). - Learners as ethnographers, informants and mediators: Developing intercultural awareness through language teaching materials. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 9(1), 312–324. 16. LUSTIG, M., & KOESTER, J. (2010). - Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. Language, Culture and Curriculum 15(1), 61–74.

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LUPPINGER Thymea1, MIHAIU Marian2, ROTARU Ovidiu 3 VEGH Eva 4 CORRELATED STUDIES BETWEEN MILK CYTOMORPHOLOGY AND THE NUMBER OF SOMATIC CELLS

Abstract. Numerical evaluation of milk cells has been generalized, becoming a significant criterion in milk quality control. The research initiated by us proposes to analyze the cytomorphologic characteristics of milk cells and their number defined by automatic counting, in order to establish the relationship between rise/increase of NSC and the evolution or non-evolution of an inflammatory process at the level of udder. In order to elucidate this relation we have processed 60 individual samples of milk at which initially we had determined TNC and further on we have performed the cytomorphologic analysis of milk by lactocytogram. The result of NSC determination demonstrates extremely high variability of the number of cells, the smallest value being 12.000 cells/ml while the highest value 5.012.000 cells/ml. If we apply the European norms of conformity of 400.000 cells/ml for mixed milk (milk from the farm tank) to the examined samples ensues that 31 samples (milk form 31 cows) had between 401.000 cells/ml and 5.012.000 cells/ml and only 29 animals produced EU-conform with values between 12.000 cells/ml and 400.000 cells/ml. The cytomorphologic analysis of lactocytograms performed on the 60 samples have demonstrated that only 10 samples had shown incontestable cytomorphologic arguments that in the udder that provided the examined milk an acute and/or chronic exudative (suppurative) fibrino-leucocytosis inflammatory process is evolving.

Keywords: Somatic Cells, Polymorphonuclear, Macrophage Monocytes, Lactocytogram. INTRODUCTION For a long period of time the quality of milk had been evaluated based only on its content and the proportion of the main components: fats, proteins, lactose, mineral salts etc. Later, the micro-components of milk had been gradually taken into consideration, as enzymes, hormones and quite recently the presence and number of germs in milk as well as the number of cells present in its composition at a certain time. (GROSMOND, 2001; KLEI  al., 1998) Today, there is no doubt that the presence of cells in milk is a normal state of a biological secretion like milk. It is also well known and widely accepted that free cells in milk may have mammary origin, mammary parenchyma, or extramammary origin from filtration, leukocyte diapedesis, from haemolymph circulation and/or interstitial mastitis. The number of somatic cells in milk is not an

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indicator only for the health of mammary glands but also for the pretability of milk processing. (KLEI  al., 1998) If we would take into consideration only the last desideratum from the upper mentioned elements it should lead to the conclusion that milk cell count and the cytomorphology of milk by lactocytogram must, compulsorily, complete each other. Starting from the upper mentioned reason the cytomorphologic investigation of milk, as it is, or of lacto-cytosediment proves to be one of the most rational methods of managing some risks that can be present in milk at a certain time. Although milk cell count in automatic system, together with the determination milk germ content have become the only criteria for appreciating hygienic quality of raw milk, the necessity to perform morphological analysis on the cellular population expressed through lactocytogram imposes. (ROTARU – OGNEAN, 1998) Thus, cytomorphologic analysis of milk is useful and necessary, making possible a good differentiation between bacteriological and other problems in milk, furthermore, it allows taking individual decisions regarding treatment manners. For proper management of milk quality (especially hygienic-sanitary quality) the number of cells and cytomorphology of milk by lactocytogram have to complete each other obligatorily. (ROTARU – OGNEAN, 1998; SABAU – ROTARU, 2006; SCHULTZ 1994). In order to clarify this relation we processed 60 individual samples of milk, collected from individual farms, at which initially we had determined NSC, then we performed the cytomorphologic analysis of milk by lactocytogram. MATERIAL AND METHOD The applied methodology consists in performing lactocytogram and cell count of milk samples by an automatic system. We processed 60 individual samples of milk, collected from population farms, at which initially we had determined NSC and further on we performed the cytomorphologic analysis of milk by lactocytogram. Out of the 60 milk samples collected from population farms in order to be analysed (40 ml in average), after determining the number of somatic cells, we performed a most meticulous homogenization possible and harvested 5 ml of product. The milk was centrifuged for 5’ at 2500 revolutions/min., the supernatant was removed and from the obtained lactosediment smears were made that were coloured for the cytological analysis using primarily May Grunwald Giemsa colouring, methyl blue and toluidine blue.

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The cytomorphologic analysis and interpretation of lactocytograms were done independently from the results provided by automatic cell count, the correlation and comparison being done subsequently. RESULTS AND ARGUMENTS The result of NSC determination has demonstrated a very high variability of cell numbers, the lowest value being 12.000 cells/ml, while the highest value was 5.012.000 cells/ml. If we apply the EU-conform standards for mixed milk (the milk in the farm tank) of 400.000 cells/ml, in verified samples, we can conclude that 31 samples (milk from 31 cows) had values between 401.000 cells/ml and 5.012.000 cells/ml and only 29 animals produced EU-conform milk with values between 12.000 cells/ml and 400.000 cells/ml. The cytomorphologic analysis of lactocytograms performed on the 60 samples has shown however, that only 10 samples presented indisputable cytomorphologic arguments that in the udder from which the examined milk originated an acute and/or chronic exudative (suppurative) fibrino-leucocytosis inflammatory process is evolving. Conclusive examples are offered by the following illustrations representing a milk sample collected from a cow diagnosed with clinical mammitis. The M.G.G. coloured smear shows a large number of nucleuses on the field, an average of more than 30 formations on field. Morphologically these cells are in the stages of necrosis and necrobiosis, their origin is not identifiable anymore. The methyl blue colouring pinpoints a low grade of impurity and bacteria, lactobacilli and micrococci are present in a low number. Among the numerous necrotic and necrobiotic cells activated and polymorph nuclear macrophage monocytes may be distinguished, with intensely segmented nucleuses (Arneth index to far right). Cytomorphologic aspects justify the diagnosis of suppurative catarrhal mammitis in the fading stage of inflammatory process. Determined TNC was 2.232.000/ml. The following images justify this cytomorphologic diagnosis:

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Fig.1. Pyknotic Cell 1, 2, 3, 4 – Karyorrhexis macrophage monocytes forming fibrinocellular emboli. MGG and MB col. x 400

The rest of lactocytograms showed that cell numbers have increased more or less significantly based on the quantitative growth of somatic cells in apoptosis and/or necrobiosis, stages in which karyorrhexis process has been evident and demonstrated by the cytomorphologic aspects of milk-cytograms. In the milk sample originating from population farms, on the smear (lactocytogram) very rare somatic and filtration cell groups appear, in advanced necrobiotic stages, on which microspheres agglutinate; isolated cells with granulated acidophil (eosinophil) cytoplasm but also inactivated monocytes being observed very rarely. Many microspheres agglutinate on the cytoplasm of cells, forming voluminous aggregates. Based on the cytomorphologic aspect we may specify that the milk is clean and comes from a healthy udder, a fact confirmed also by the NTC evaluated at 42.000 cells/ml.

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Fig. 2 Agglutinated somatic and filtration cells. MGG col. x 400.

CONCLUSIONS Based on the cytomorphologic study of the 60 lactocytograms performed on the same number of individual samples the following conclusion may be drawn: The term “somatic milk cells” as well as the collocation “number of somatic cells” NSC have to be replaced compulsorily by TCN – “total number of cells”, because lactocytogram pinpoints that there are two types of milk cells with different origin: cells with mammary origin (somatic) and filtration cells represented by leucocytes. The cytomorphologic analysis can differentiate the origin of cells in a rate of 80%, especially in the case when a chronic or acute inflammatory process is evolving in the udder. The stage of apoptosis-necrobiosis reached at a certain moment by somatic cells and some filtration cells makes differentiation impossible in the case when growth of TNC has non-inflammatory causes.

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Cytomorphologic study of lactocytograms has shown that both in the case of clinical mammitis and also in non-mamitic milk the cell with the most significant individuality turned out to be the macrophage monocyte. Regarding the origin of milk macrophage, the cytomorphologic analysis performed till now allows us to advance the hypothesis of a mixed source of milk macrophages: of extra-mammary origin, filtration macrophages but also of mammary origin by metaplasia of certain cells of mammary parenchyma: leucocytes. REFERENCES 1. GROSMOND G. (2001), Citomorfologia laptelui de vacă sănătos şi bolnav www.agriseau.qc/argeneral/documents/Grosmond_colbi07pdf 2. KLEI, L., YUN, J., SAPRU, A., LINCH, J., BARBANO, D., SEARS, P., GALTON, D. (1998), Effects of milk somatic cell count on cottage cheese yield and quality. J. Dairy Sci., 81(5), p. 1205-1213. 3. MIHAIU M. (1995), Cercetări privind unii indici de calitate al laptelui obţinut în unităţi de reproducţie din Transilvania, Teză de doctorat fmv, Cluj Napoca 4. ROTARU O., OGNEAN, L. (1998), Morfologia şi Fiziologia Populaţiei Celulare din Lapte. Ed. Casa cărţii de ştiinţe, Cluj Napoca 5. SABĂU D., ROTARU O. (2006), Celulele somatice şi sănătatea laptelui, Ed. Academic Press, Cluj-Napoca. 6. SCHULTZ J. (1994), Somatic cells in goat milk, Tierarztl. Praxis 438-442. 7. UNHUREANU C.; MINCIUNĂ V. (1983), Afecţiunile glandei mamare la vaci, Ed. Ceres, Bucureşti. 8. VAN OOSTVELDT et al. (2002), Apoptosis of bovine neutrophils diapedesis trought a monolayer of endotelial and mamary epithelial cells, J. Dairy Sci; 85:139-147.

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MÉZES Lili 1, MOLNÁR Szabolcs, TAMÁS János ENSURING SLAUGHTERHOUSE WASTE FEATHER RECYCLING WITH BIOLOGICAL PRE-TREATMENT Abstract. Feathers are produced in large amounts as a waste in poultry slaughterhouses. Only 60-70% of the poultry slaughterhouse products are available for human consumption. 15-20% of the slaughterhouse by-products contain keratin; from this the proportion of feather is 7-9% with 50-70% moisture content. This means more million tons annually worldwide (Papadopoulus et al., 1986; Williams et al., 1991; Hegedűs et al., 1998). The keratin-content of feather can be difficulty digested, so physical, chemical and/or biological pre-treatment are needed in practice, which have to be set according to the utilization method. The microbiological and enzymatic degradation of feather to soluble protein and amino acids is a very favourable and relatively cheap opportunity to produce valuable products of the resulting feather. Our applied treatments were based on the determination of the most effective method, which is able to follow the biodegradation of poultry feather waste. The high protein content of poultry feather makes it an excellent raw material for biogas production. The digestion by fermentation of this difficultly disintegrating material produced in large quantities provides an environmentally friendly way of utilization. Key words: feather, pre-treatment, keratin, biodegradation JEL codes: Q53 INTRODUCTION The 60-70% of slaughtered broiler chicken product is able to human consumption. Feather with 50-70% water content is instrumental as by-product in poultry slaughterhouses which is not able to stock utilization or decoration. More million tons of poultry feathers are produced world-wide annually (Williams et al., 1991; Hegedűs et al., 1998). The feather protein so-called keratin is insoluble, respectively has high structural stability and capability of resistance for proteolytic microbes because of high degree of cross-linking by cystine disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonding, and 169

hydrophobic interactions (Harrap and Woods, 1964; Kunert, 1973; Kaluzewska et al., 1991). Feather digestion is difficult by proteolytic enzymes like trypsin, pepsin and papain (Letourneau et al., 1998). Specific keratinolytic microorganisms are need to feather degradation (Elődi, 1980; Cohlberg, 1993; Steinert, 1993; Onifade et al., 1998). For this reason the feather waste treatment and utilization are difficult tasks. Physical, chemical and/or biological pre-treatment are needed in practice, which has to be set according to the utilization method (Hegedűs et al., 1998; Perei et al., 2004; Bíró et al., 2008). Previously, feather powder was produced which was used for animal feedstuff in Hungary. The modified constitutional law (1576/2007/EK decree, 1774/2002/EK, European Parlament) disable the feather utilization as feedstuff and depose to the landfill, so innovative developments and methods are need to reach the objectives of alternative poultry feather utilization. The microbial or enzymatic feather degradation provides opportunities for cheap products productions from feather (Williams et al., 1990; Shih, 1993). Recently researching results proved that some bacteria from birds’ feather can digest the keratin and degrade the feather quickly in laboratory condition (Lucas et al., 2005). Keratinolytic bacteria can degrade ß-keratin (Onifade et al., 1998; Lucas et al., 2003; Gunderson et al., 2009). The Bacillus spp. was identified as the most productive feather-degrading bacteria in soil (Kao and Lai (1995). In Fakhfakh et al. (2012) study, keratin hydrolisatum was produced by Bacillus pumilis A1, which was isolated from polluted water of local slaughterhouse. The most study focus on Bacillus, especially on Bacillus licheniformis. Bacillus licheniformis PWD-1 was isolated by Williams et al. (1990) from aerobic extract of poultry slaughter waste. Wang and Shih (1999) examined the keratinase productivity of Bacillus licheniformis; while other researchers used it for intensify ß-keratin degradation (Lin et al., 1995). In Hungary, Kovács et al. (2002), Perei et al. (2004) and Bálint et al. (2005) examined Bacillus licheniformis. They separated Bacillus from nature (Bacillus licheniformis KK1) which produce extracellular protease and can degrade well the feather and fur because of enzymatic ability. Our applied treatments were based on the determination of the most effective method, which is able to follow the biodegradation of poultry feather waste by Bacillus licheniformis KK1. MATERIALS AND METHODS Examination of the main quality properties of poultry feather

The sterilization of wet poultry feather from slaughterhouse was completed by a Raypa type autoclave (with 115°C, on 1.5-2.5 atm pressure). Carbon and nitrogen content of poultry feather were analyzed by Elementar VARIO EL universal analyser in Centre Laboratory of Bátortrade Ltd. The feather sample was dried on 80 C until 8 hours in oven. The dry and organic matter content was determined following MSZ 318-3:1979 standard. 170

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Characteristics of applied bacteria

Bacillus licheniformis KK1 bacterial strain was applied in our experiments (Kovács et al., 2002; Perei at al., 2004). Bacillus licheniformis was interpreted as Eubacteria by Pesti (2001), which can be classified into Gram+ (Firmicutes) division Bacilli class. The keratinolytic Bacillus licheniformis KK1 is an aerobic, endo-spore forming bacteria strain with neutral pH and 42°C optimum (Bálint et al., 2005; Bagi, 2006). KK1 produces peptide antibiotic. Storability of KK1 is 1-2 week in liquid medium on +4°C whereas 0.5-1 year in plate. KK1 is tolerant to biogenic environmental conditions (Bagi, 2006). LB medium was applied to sustain the bacteria which contain: (g/L): peptone, 10; yeast extract, 5; and NaCl, 5 (Miller, 1972). The pH setting of LB liquid medium was determined to pH 7.5 with Tris-HCl. Hanna HI2550 multifunctional pH/ORP/temperature/EC/TDS/NaCl device was used to pH setting (Measuring limit: 0-14 pH±0.01; -20-+120°C±0.4). Following the autoclaving, processes of incubation (42°C) and shaking (200 rpm) were completed by Heidolph Unimax 1010 type incubator and shaker device. Cell counting was occurred in Burker chamber with Alpha BIO-3CCD light microscope. Cell number of bacteria was 91x106 cell/ml. 4,55x106 cell/ml was generated for passage with dilution (distilled water). Measurement of keratin activity in liquid medium After inoculation of feather: water mixture in liquid medium, determination of hydrolysis efficiency was completed by monitoring of soluble protein content changes according to Bradford (1976). The composition of applied liquid medium is shown in Table 1. Composition of liquid mediums Table 1. A, Fakfakh et al., 2012 (1 l) KH2PO4 K2HPO4 NaCl KCl MgSO4 (7 H2O) B, Okoroma et al., 2012 (1 l) KH2PO4 K2HPO4 NaCl MgSO4 (7 H2O)

g/l 0.5 0.5 2.0 0.1 0.1 g/l 0.7 1.4 0.5 0.1

Medium filling to 1 litre was occurred with sterilized distilled water, whereas pH 7.5 had been set by Tris-HCl puffer. 200 ml of liquid medium was added into flask 171

with 500 ml capacity. Following this, 2 g whole poultry feather was added into flask and inoculation was occurred with Bacillus licheniformis KK1 strain (4,55x106 cell/ml). Incubation (42°C) and shaking (200 rpm) were completed by Heidolph Unimax 1010 incubator and shaker device. Optical Density (OD) of nutrient solution was examined at 595 nm range by Sacoman Athelie Junior type spectrophotometer. Determination of protein content from liquid medium with Bradford assay The Bradford assay relies on the binding of the dye Coomassie Brilliant Blue G250 to protein. The mentioned property could be characterized as the paint binds to arginine and lyzine parts of protein with electrostatic and van der Waals interactions. It follows that during the determination of different proteins, the replies could be different. Therefore, the applied protein as reference material must be same with the protein which to be examined. In this case, the absorption maximum is changed from 465 to 595 nm. For the creation of calibration curve, dilution series was made from reference solution (Bovine serum albumin: 10 μl, 20 μl, 40 μl, 60 μl, 80 μl, 100 μl,) (Walker et al., 2002). 100 μl distilled water was used as blank sample. The sample was filtered with Wathman no1. filter paper. After filtration from supernatant, protein content was determined by photometer. 5 ml Coomassie Brilliant Blue reagent was added into examined solutions. After 2 minutes and 1 hour of shaking, absorbance of solutions was measured on 595 nm. Concentration of protein content of samples could be determined with comparison of absorbance values and calibration curve. Measurement of protein concentration was completed each day until 5 days from liquid medium. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Dry and organic matter content of poultry feather was measured before setting up experiments. The amount of water content was average of 67% of feather waste. Average of organic matter content of feather is convertible; the value of dry matter content was 66%. The results of carbon and nitrogen content of used feather samples can be seen in Table 2. Quality parameters of poultry feather Table 2. Number of samples 1. 2. 3. 4. Average

Deviation

Carboncontent (%) 50.59 53.66 50.58 51.61 ±1.78

Nitrogencontent (%) 14.31 14.605 14.81 12.63 14.09 ±0.995

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Keratin mainly contain: carbon (50-55%), oxygen (25-30%), hydrogen (15-18%), nitrogen (7-8%), sulphur (0.5-2%). Keratin contains traces of bore, chlorine, and iron (Ádám, 2001). Comparing the results of our experiments, the values of carbon content were same (51.6%), however nitrogen content was higher (14,1%). The protein content of examined feather sample (nitrogen content*6.25) on average was 88.1±6.22% which was similar to results of Papadopoulos (1985) experiments (85-99%). Therefore, examination of keratin digestion can keep track of the degradation rate of feather. The protein concentration of samples was analyzed in A and B medium (Table 1.) from 4-4 samples per day. In addition, cell counting was repeated every day with Burker chamber. The calibration curve was determined with known absorbance protein (Bovine serum albumin solution with 1 mg/ml protein content) for measurement of protein concentration according to Bradford (Figure 1.).

Figure 1: Determination of protein concentration based on calibration curve

The dissolved protein concentration of samples could be determined with calibration curve as follow: an absorbance value is needed to select from data of measurements. This value was added to Y-axis of calibration curve. Following this, from this point the curve was sectioned perpendicularly. Perpendicular was added from the resulting intersection to X-axis. The dissolved protein concentration could be known by intersection reading, in our case the value was 0.19 mg/ml. After calculation of total soluble protein concentration, the efficiency of two medium is comparable. The composition of B liquid medium was more favourable for Bacillus licheniformis KK1 bacteria. The value of dispersion was significant (0.078 mg/ml) in the last results of measurements of B medium, which means 15% difference. Despite of same mass (2 g) and whole feather samples were used the experiment; the difference is remained because of different structural features of feathers. More homogeneous poultry feather could be produced if the feather was grinded before. The rate of keratin degradation could be seen in Table 4. 173

Keratin degradation rate of different medium Table 4. Keratin degradation rate (mg/ml) (%) Type of media

1.

A B

1.02 0.14

day

2.

day

2.16 2.72

3.

day

5.56 6.47

5. day 7.37 8.62

Analyzing the rate of keratin digestion, the type of B medium was more effective (+1.25%) in case of same quantity of feather samples. Monitoring of growth of bacteria cells was also examined by all of the soluble protein concentration measuring with Burker chamber (Table 5.). Changes of bacterial cell number in applied media Table 5.

6

Type of media A B

Bacterial cell number (x10 cell/ml) 0. da 1. day 2. day y 4.55±0.00 9.0±0.28 16.7±0.42 4.55±0.00 10.2±0.56 21.8±1.13

3. day 45.3±1.56 51.2±1.13

5. day 57.6±1.13 69.6±4.53

Comparing the results the soluble protein concentration and cell number, there is a linear relationship between the protein concentration and bacterial cell number. CONCLUSIONS Based on the result of total soluble protein concentration, that B liquid medium composition was favourable for applied bacterial stain. Keratin degradable ratio was more effective (+1.25%) in case of B medium. Results of liquid media experiments indicated that cell number of Bacillus licheniformis KK1 depends on the composition of the culture media and also on the quantity of applied feather. B medium with higher K2HPO4 and lower NaCl content proved more effective as A medium in case of bacterial cell number also. The exact effects (NaCl, K2HPO4) can be determined by further studies. Linear relationship was observed between the protein concentration and bacterial cell number. Based on this results is detectable the keratin activity and therefore could determine the degree of keratin degradation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Prof. Kornél L. Kovács, Dr. Zoltán Bagi (University of Szeged, Department of Biotechnology), Györgyi Biró, Sándorné Kincses, Bence Mátyás (University of Debrecen, MÉK) for professional support and for assistance in the research. This research was supported by the European Union and the State of

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Hungary, co-financed by the European Social Fund in the framework of TÁMOP4.2.4.A/ 2-11/1-2012-0001 ‘National Excellence Program’. REFERENCES 1. ÁDÁM I. (2001) - A toll. A baromfitoll és feldolgozása, Scriptor Bt., Budapest. 11-30. pp. 98-114. 2. BAGI Z. (2006) – Personal consultation. SZTE, TTIK, Biotechnológiai Tanszék. 3. BÁLINT, B., BAGI, Z., TÓTH A., RÁKHELY G., PEREI K., KOVÁCS, K. L. (2005) - Utilization of keratin-containing biowaste to produce biohydrogen. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnol. 69. 4. pp. 404-410. 4. BÍRÓ T., MÉZES L., PETIS M., KOVÁCS L.K., BAGI Z., HUNYADI G. (2008) - A baromfi toll, mint biogáz alapanyag. Kiss T., Somogyvári M. (szerk.). Via Futuri 2007. A biomassza alapú energiatermelés. BIOKOM Kft. Pécs. pp. 156-163. 5. BRADFORD, M. M. (1976) - A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye binding. Analytical Biochemistry. 72. pp. 248-254. 6. COHLBERG, J. A. (1993) - The strukture of L-keratin. Trends Biochem. Sci. 18. pp, 360-362. 7. ELŐDI P. (1980) - Biokémia. Akadémia Kiadó. Budapest. pp. 72-128., 543-621. 8. FAKHFAKH N., GARAGOURI M., DAHMENL I., SELLAMIKAMOUN A., EL FEKI A., NASRI M. (2012) - Improvement of antioxidant potential in rats consuming feathers protein hydrolysate obtained by fermentation of the keratinolytic bacterium, Bacillus pumilus A1. African Journal of Biotechnolgy. 01.11. pp. 938-949. 9. HARRAP, B. S., WOODS, E. F. (1964) - Soluble derivatives of feather keratin. Biochem. J. 92. pp. 19-26. 10. HEGEDŰS M., SCHMINDT J., RAFAI P. (1998) - Állati eredetű melléktermékek hasznosítása. Mezőgazda Kiadó. Budapest. 15-29., 65-93. 11. GUNDERSON, A. R., FORSYTH, M. H., SWADDLE, J. P. (2009) Evidence that plumage bacteria influence feather coloration and body condition of eastern bluebirds, Sialia sialis. Journal of Avian Biology. 40. pp. 440-447. 12. KALUZEWSKA M., WAWRZKIEWICZ K., LOBARZEWSKI J. (1991) Microscopic examination of keratin substrates subjected to the action of the enzymes of Streptomyces fradiae. Int. Biodeterior. 27. pp. 11-26. 13. KAO, M. M., LAI, H. Y. (1995): The study of the selection of featherdegrading microorganismus. J. Chin. Inst. Environmental Eng. 5. pp. 37-43. 14. KOVÁCS, K. L., BAGI, Z., PEREI, R. K., CSANÁDI, GY., FODOR, B., KOVÁCS, Á. T., MARÓTI, G., MAGONY, M., BÁLINT, B., 175

VALASTYÁN, P., RÁKHELY, G. (2002) - Biohydrogen, biogas, bioremediation. Proc. "Power of Microbes in Industry and Environment" Conf., Opatija, Croatia, 7-9 June, 2002. 17. 15. KUNERT J. (1973) - Keratin decomposition by dermatophytes: evidence of sulphitolysis of the protein. Experientia. 33. pp. 489-498. 16. LETOURNEAU F., SOUSSOTTE V., BRESSOLLIER P., BRANLAND P., VERNEUIL B. (1998) - Keratinolytic activity of Streptomyces sp. S.K.1-02: a new isolated strain. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 26. pp. 77-80. 17. LIN, X., DELEMEN, D. W., MILLER, E. S., SHIH, J. C. (1995) - DNA nucleotide sequence of keratinase gene of Bacillus licheniformis. Appl. Environmental Microbiol. 61. 4. pp. 1469-1474. 18. LUCAS, F. S., BROENNIMANN, O., FEBBRARO, I., HEEB, P. (2003) High diversity among feather degrading bacteria from a dry meadow soil. Microbial Ecology. 45. pp. 282–290. 19. LUCAS, F. S., MOUREAU, B., JOURDIE, V., HEEB, P. (2005) - Brood size modifications affect plumage bacterial assemblages of European starlings. Molecular Ecology. 14. pp. 639–646. 20. MILLER J. H. (1972) - Experiments in molecular genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. 21. OKOROMA E. A., GARELICK H., ABIOLA O. O., PURCHASE D. (2012) - Identification and characterisation of a Bacillus licheniformis strain with profound keratinase activity for degradation of melanised feather. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation. 74. pp. 54–60. 22. ONIFADE, A. A., AL-SANE, N. A., AL-MUSSALLAM, A. A., ALZARBAM, S. (1998) - A review: Potentials for biotechnological applications of keratin-degrading microorganisms and their enzymes for nutritional improvement of feathers and other keratins as livestock feed resources. Biores. Technol. 66. pp. 1-11. 23. PAPADOPOULOS, M. C. (1985) - Processed chicken feathers as feedstuff for poultry and swine. A review. Agric. Wastes. 14. pp. 275–290. 24. PEREI K., BAGI Z., BÁLINT B., CSANÁDI GY., HOFNER P., HORVÁTH L, KARDOS GY., MAGONY M., RÁKHELY G., ROMÁN GY., TÓTH A., ZSÍROS SZ., KOVÁCS L. K. (2004) - Mikrobák környezetvédelmi biotechnológiai hasznosításra. In: Székács A. (szerk.). Biokémia. A Magyar Biokémiai Egyesület tájékoztatója. 28. 3. pp. 54–58. 25. PESTI M. (2001) - Általános mikrobiológia. Dialóg Campus Kiadó. Budapest–Pécs. 26. SHIH, J. C .H. (1993) - Recent development in poultry waste digestion and feather utilization – a review. Poultry Sci. 72. pp. 1617–1620. 27. STEINERT, P. M. (1993) - Structure, function, and dynamics of keratin intermediate filaments. J. Invest. Dermatol. 100. pp. 729-734. 28. WALKER J. M. (2002) - The Protein Protocols Handbook. Humana Press Inc. Totowa. NJ. pp. 1-16. 176

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29. WANG, J. J., SHIH, J. C. H. (1999) - Fermentation production of keratinase from Bacillus licheniformis PWD-1 and a recombinant B. subtilis FDB-29. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, June 1999. 22. 6. pp. 608-616. 30. WILLIAMS, C. M., RICHESTER, C. S., MACKENZI, J. M., SHIH, J. C. H. (1990) - Isolation, identification and characterization of a featherdegrading bacterium. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 56. pp. 1509-1515. 31. WILLIAMS C.M., LEE CG., GARLICH J.D., SHIH J.C.H. (1991) Evaluation of a bacterial feather fermentation product, feather-lysate as a feed protein. Poultry Sci. 70. pp. 85-94. 32. 1576/2007/EK decree (modified 1774/2002/EK decree) 33. MSZ 318-3:1979 standard for dry matter content and loss on ignition CONTACT 1. Mézes Lili, University of Debrecen, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, Institute of Water and Environmental Management, 4032 Böszörményi str. 138., Debrecen, Hungary, E-mail: [email protected]

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RUSU Andrei 1, PLUGARU Sebastian 1, ORBAN Mihaela 1, RUSU Tiberiu 1 THE MONITORING OF THE HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION EVOLUTION IN THE BABADAG LAKES AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM Abstract. Babadag lake is part of Razim-Sinoe lagoon complex which is included in the area of protection of wetlands according to Ramsar Convention. Alongside Danube Delta, the lake is part of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation under UNESCO. The study deals with the evaluation of the impact of heavy metal pollution on an aquatic ecosystem and presents the results obtained from the monitoring of heavy metals in different places of the lake. In order to obtain a complete image of the water quality, different biological determinations have been done. A normal questions arises: “how good is this water?”. In this study we have tried to answer this question as good as possible.

Keywords: heavy metals, water, pollution, Danube Delta JEL codes: Q56 PRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCHED ECOSYSTEM Lake Babadag is part of the lagoon complex Razim - Sinoe, included in the protection area of Humid Areas, according to the Ramsar Convention, and, along with the Danube Delta, it is part of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation in UNESCO. In Lake Babadag, the pisciculture fauna is represented by fresh water species, such as the bream, crucian and South-East Asian cyprinidae, which are in rather large quantities, and the carp, zander and eel are present in lower quantities.(Teodorof et al., 2003-2005) This lake was chosen for the application, considering the fact that the water feeding is made mainly by two canals and the evacuation of water from the lake is performed through a single canal, towards Lake Razim. Thus, water flows can be continuously monitored and, at the same time, we can install a continuous data monitoring system for this lake.(Rusu., 2012) Thus, we can install an automatic data tracking and transmission system, towards a centre located on the border of the lake, on a hill with a height of approximately 150m. On this area, we can install a data reception antenna, from which the data is transmitted to the monitoring and processing centre.(Rusu.,2012).

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Fig 1. Lake Babadag.(Rusu., 2012)

ASSESSMENT OF THE WATER QUALITY CONDITION IN LAKE BABADAG In order to know the quality of the water in Lake Babadag, throughout the research development in the present study, water sampling campaigns were performed. The laboratory assessments have included the physical and chemical, biological and microbiological analyses. Each physical and chemical indicator was included in a quality class, by comparing the synthesis value (arithmetic average) with the allowed threshold value according to the “Normative regarding the classification of the quality of surface waters for the purpose of establishing the ecological condition of bodies of water” approved through the Ministry Order no. 161/2006. The condition of the water quality was assessed upon the classification into quality classes of indicator groups. This classification was established according to the share of each chemical, physical and chemical quality element determined through comparison with the provided threshold values.(Rusu., 2010)  The “Oxygen regime” (RO) group, which includes: the dissolved oxygen, CCO-Mn, CCO-Cr, CBO5; 179

 The “Nutrients” (RN) group, which includes: ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, total nitrate, phosphates, total phosphorus;  The “Salinity” (S) group, which includes: fixed residue, sulphates, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium;  The “Toxic and specific pollutants of natural origin” (TS) group, which includes: metals such as zinc, copper, chrome, other than those included in the list of priority/priorly dangerous substances;  The “Other relevant chemical indicators” (TO) group, which includes: detergents, phenols, cyanides;  General characterization (G). In order to obtain an overview as complete as possible over the quality of water, biological assessments were also performed. Based on all of these assessments, the physical and chemical, biological and ecological condition of the lake was determined.(Boyer., 2000). WATER SAMPLING Water sampling is an important operation for determining the accuracy of the measurement results. Thus, the samples to be representative, some conditions regarding the depth at which the water sampling is performed, climate conditions (lack of rain) etc. have to be met. In order to determine the metal content, 500 ml of water are sampled at a time, fixed with 2.5 ml concentrated nitric acid. The determination of the metal content is performed on an unfiltered sample. The determination of the pH, conductivity (content of completely dissolved salts) and solid suspensions is performed on unfixed and unfiltered samples. In order to determine the dissolved oxygen in the water, the permanganate index, the water samples are fixed with specific reactives.(Rusu., 2012). If the sample concentration exceeds the concentration of the minimal standard, the sample is diluted. For water samples, the metal content is calculated with the formula: mg metal/l= C1*50/25 where: curve,

C1=the concentration of the sample extrapolated on the calibration 50 = the calibrated flask at which the sample was brought, 25 = the mineralized water volume.(Teodorof et al., 2009).

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If the sample concentration exceeds the maximum standard value in the calibration curve, the sample is diluted, including also the dilution factor in the calculation. In this case, the determined metal content is: mg metal / L = (C1*50/25)V1/V2 where: V1=the final volume of the sample after dilution, in ml; V2=the sample volume, in ml, taken for dilution; We must also take into account the measurement uncertainty. mg metal/l = mg metal/l +/- the measurement uncertainty. If the sample concentration exceeds the maximum standard value in the calibration curve, the sample is diluted, including also the dilution factor in the calculation. Thus, the metal content becomes equal to: mg metal /kg =[100*C 1 /a]*V1/V2 where : V1= the final volume of the sample after dilution, in ml; V2= the sample volume, in ml, taken for dilution.(Teodorof et al 2009) THE OBTAINED RESULTS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION According to the procedure developed within the laboratory, control diagrams were drawn, which insure quality control for chemical analyses. We state that the measurements were performed during several months, in different years, but the monthly average values were established, so the the diagrams were drawn based on them. The measurements were performed in the central area of Lake Babadag. After concluding, through control analyses and the calculation of deviations, that the values comply with the laws of statistics, the results were centralized. The results established through this method were analyzed and processed, establishing the most important indicators which are to be analyzed from the high number of performed measurements. When establishing the most important indicators, we have departed from the idea to verify which polluting substances are most dangerous for the ecosystem and which of the determined values are close to the allowed values for the water category and quality requirements for waters of pisciculture activities.(Rusu., 2012) Table no. 1. Assessment of heavy metals 2008

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Parameter

Unit of measurement

Date 26.03.2008 7.6

13.05.2010 14.000

Quality class

15.07.2010 17.000

Chrome(Cr)

µg/l

Lead(Pb)

µg/l

0.840

1.900

2100

I

Cadmium(Cd)

µg/l

0.063

0.095

0.430

II

Mercury(Hg)

µg/l

0.170

0.280

0.190

II

Parameter Chrome(Cr)

I

Table no. 2. Assessment of heavy metals 2009 Unit of Date measurement 07.04.2009 23.06.2009 04.08.2009 µg/l 3.2 8.2 5.3

Quality class I

Lead(Pb)

µg/l

1.5

2.3

0.073

II

Cadmium(Cd)

µg/l

0.7

0.073

0.09

I

Mercury(Hg)

µg/l

0.055

0.12

0.19

II

Parameter Chrome(Cr)

Table no. 3. Assessment of heavy metals 2010 Unit of Date measurement 27.07.2010 28.09.2010 µg/l 1.700 19.000

Quality class I

Lead(Pb)

µg/l

9.500

1.500

II

Cadmium(Cd)

µg/l

0.110

0.210

I

Mercury(Hg)

µg/l

0.120

0.180

II

Based on these measurements, the variation charts were drawn for the polluting substances in the waters of the lake.(Rusu.,2012).

Fig. 2. The variation of Chrome in the sampling point at the centre of Lake Babadag

Regarding the variation of the concentration in Total Chrome, it is under the classification value of 25 µg/l , thus the water is included in the Ist class of quality.

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Fig. 3. The variation of Cadmium in the sampling point at the centre of Lake Babadag

Regarding the lake’s concentration in Cadmium ions, we state that the maximum determined value is under 0,5 µg/l, which includes the water in the Ist class of quality and thus is appropriate for pisciculture activities. Still, the Cadmium analysis must be performed periodically, since it is considered a toxic and even a cancerigenic metal.(Rusu.,2012).

Fig.4. The variation of Lead in the sampling point at the centre of Lake Babadag

Regarding the concentration variation in Lead, it is under the classification value of 5 µg/l , which includes the water in the Ist class of quality and thus is appropriate for pisciculture activities.(Rusu.,2012).

Fig. 5. The variation of Mercury in the sampling point at the centre of Lake Babadag

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Regarding the concentration variation in Mercury, it is over the classification value of 0,1 µg/l, so the water is included in the IInd quality class and thus it is appropriate for pisciculture activities, but the water must be monitored, since the Mercury is accumulative.(Rusu.,2012). CONCLUSIONS The assessments performed during three consecutive years have led us to the conclusion that the Danube in general is an emissary which collects significant quantities of water, more or less polluted, transports them and discharges them into the Black Sea. The Delta is an area with numerous lakes and canals, where water flows very slowly, or is sometimes still, facilitating the deposition of significant quantities of heavy metals, which accumulate and sometimes exceed the allowed threshold for surface water. We must state that the Danube Delta is a protected area, thus more severe conditions are imposed, regarding water quality. The main cause of the high pollution level is mostly due to the rivers discharging into the Danube, but also to the existence of large cities on the banks of Danube, with treatment plants which do not operate at optimal parameters.(Rusu.,2012). REFERENCES 1. Boyer S. A.(2000) -Supervisory control and data acquisition 3rd Ed ISa SUA ISBN 1-55615-660-0 2. Teodorof L., David C., Tudor D.,Nastase C.(2003-2005)-Surface water quality indicators of Danube Delta lakes between, Scientific Annals of DDNI vol XIII, pp 145-154 3. Teodorof L., Năstase C., Anuţi I, Stroe M. (2009)- Heavy metals extraction and analysis in aquatic ecosystems with automated techniques, Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering, vol. 9, no. 2 pp 99-102, Suceava, Romania 4. Rusu T. A.(2010) Sisteme informationale privind monitorizarea si gestiunea factorilor de mediu Editura UTPRESS ISBN -978-973-662-524-4 5. Rusu A (2012)- , Research on monitoring systems of environmental factors, PhD Thesis, Cluj Napoca, CONTACT 1

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Bd Muncii, 103-105, Cluj-Napoca, 400641, Romania

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2.Sebastian Plugaru, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering, e-mail:[email protected]

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SÁNDOR Mónika, FAZAKAS József, BARTALIS Ildikó, SZŐKE Anna-Maria CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PEAT FROM COMANDĂU AND ITS ALCALINE EXTRACTS

Abstract. Peat is generally defined as a soil which has accumulated partially decomposed plant residues under anaerobic conditions. Peat can also be defined as the accumulation of 100% pure organic material which contains at least 65% organic matter or less than 35% mineral content. The practical application of peat and peat products is closely connected with their content of humic substances. Humic substances are complex, heterogeneous organic compounds with different structures and a wide range of molecular weights. In this study, the characterization of peat and its extracts were investigated. Peat samples were collected from the peatland situated in Comandău. The pH, potential acidity, sum of exchangeable cations, organic matter, ash and humic substance content were determined. The isolation of the humic substances was carried out using a simplified extraction method with NaOH, based on their solubility characteristics. The isolated humic substances were characterized by elemental analysis. The results show that peat contains 85-91 % organic matter and 9-15 % ash and the values of pH varies between 3.71 and 4.03. The extracted humic acid represents 19 – 32 % and fulvic acid represents 18.5-19.5%.

Keywords: peat, humic substances, Comandău

INTRODUCTION Humic substances (HSs) are natural complex mixtures of organic compounds and are ubiquitous in soils, sediments, surface water and groundwater, in the aqueous phase and in association with the soil/sediments solid phase [1]. They are essentially new products in soils, synthesized from the nonhumified compounds and released during the decomposition of the plant or animal residues without or with the assistance of micro organisms [2]. The humin substances the building bricks of the soils, and the process of their formation is called humification [3]. HSs are non-volatile, biologically refractory, yellow-to-black-coloured organic polyelectrolyte that tend to be acidic due to the presence of carboxylic and phenolic structural groups and to be heterogeneous, consisting of numerous oxygen-containing functional groups and fractions (humic acids, fulvic acids and humin) with different molecular weights, ranging from several hundreds to thousands of atomic units or Daltons [4]. HSs consist of both hydrophobic 186

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(aromatic and aliphatic) and hydrophilic moieties and tend to interact with organic contaminants and with heavy metals [5]. They are usually obtained from soils by extraction, fractionation and isolation procedures with basic and acidic solutions. The most common used solution is NaOH. HSs are usually fractionated on the basis of their solubility characteristics. The humic fraction which is not soluble in water under pH < 2 conditions, is called humic acid (HA), the fraction which is soluble in water under all pH conditions, is named fulvic acid (FA) and finally the humin represents the fraction which is not soluble in water at any pH value [6]. HSs are very abundant in the environment and represent 60–85% of the organic matter in peat [7]. Therefore the peat is very good source from which HSs can be isolated. Peat is a light brown to black organic material formed under waterlogged conditions by partial decomposition of mosses and other bryophytes, sedges, grasses, shrubs, or trees. HSs have different significance in different areas, and can be used for a variety of purposes in agriculture, industry and medicine, etc. There are a number of reasons for using humic matter in the pharmaceutical industry. The oldest reason comes perhaps from peat, which has been known for a long time in Europe for its therapeutic properties. Peat baths were taken in the old times for therapy of gynaecological and rheumatic diseases, and even today mud baths are still offered in many European health clinics and spas [8]. In our modern cosmetic industry, face mud are offered at expensive prices for curing or removing old skin [8]. These healing properties have been currently traced to humic acid, the dominant component of peat. Balneal peat has physical effect through temperature and biochemical effect through bioactive substances [9]. Peat and various peat preparations have been successfully used in the balneary practice of clinical medicine [10]. The aim of this article is to study the quality of the Comandău peat for using it as a source for isolating the HSs. Humic substances can be considered suitable for the therapeutic use because of their biological activity. This is the reason why HSs have been isolated from peat with a simplified extraction method. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Sample collection and preparation. Peat was collected from the peat bog located in Comadău, Covasna County, Romania. The peat samples were taken from a depth 187

of 0–20 cm and 20-40 cm, after removing the vegetation from the top. These were air dried, grounded and passed through 1 mm sieve. A part of the sieved samples were passed through 0.2 mm sieve. Nine types of sample have been separated and presented in the following table. Table 1. Names of samples for analyses Type of sample

Description

1A

Sample from depth 20-40 cm, sieved through 1 mm

1B

Sample from depth 20-40 cm, sieved through 0.2 mm

1C

The amount of peat remaining after sieving the 1B sample

2A

Samples from 0-20 cm depth, sieved through 1 mm

2B

Samples from 0-20 cm depth, sieved through 0.2 mm

2C

The amount of peat remaining after sieving the 2B sample

3A

Samples from 0-20 cm depth, sieved through 1 mm

3B

Samples from 0-20 cm depth, sieved through 0.2 mm

3C

The amount of peat remaining after sieving the 3B sample

Peat characterization. Ash and humus content were measured after heating the peat samples at 600 oC for eight hours. Their pH was determined in distilled water and in 1 N KCl solution using a WTW Inolab 720 pH meter [11]. For peat samples the recommended ratio is 1:10 sample/distilled water [12]. Hydrolytically acidity, the exchange acidity, the amount of exchangeable cation were determined according to STAS 7184/12-88 [13]. Determinations were performed three times. Extraction of humic substances. We followed the scheme below (Figure 1) for isolation of humic substances, which is a simplified version of the extraction method recommended by Buzás [14]. Briefly: after pre-treatment with 0.1 N HCl solution, the peat was treated with 0.1 N NaOH solution which produced two fractions: a supernatant (humic and fulvic acids), and humin and other insoluble compounds. Subsequently, the supernatant was acidified with concentrated HCl to pH 1 and the humic acids precipitated. The fulvic acids stayed in solution. All fractions were separated by filtration and finally lyophilized. For the elemental analysis (C, H, O), a Perkin Elmer 2400 analyzer was used.

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Figure 1. Fractionation scheme utilized for humic substances

For the analyses, analytical quality reagents were used without further purification. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The examined peat with pH (H2O) ranging from 3.71 to 4.03 belongs to very strongly acidic range (Table 2). The pH values determined in 1 N KCl solution were lower than those measured in water, which suit with the data from literature [11]. The following results were obtained: hydrolytical acidity 114.15 (me/100g peat), exchange acidity 2.3 (me/100g peat) and amount of exchangeable cation 5.03. (me/100g peat). Average values for the sum of exchangeable cation are very low in examined peat.

Table 2. pH values in aqueous and saline suspension

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Type of sample

Average values of pH (H2O)

Average values of pH (KCl)

1A

4.00

-

1B

3.94

2.94

1C

4.03

-

2A

3.77

-

2B

3.78

2.86

2C

3.83

-

3A

3.71

-

3B

3.73

2.78

3C

3.83

-

Using the calcination method, we could determine the ash and humus content of the samples. The humus content varied between 85.5 and 90.5 % (Figure 2). Samples with higher plant debris content (2A, 2B, 3A and 3B) suffered a lower mass loss. These values are very similar. Samples containing fewer plant residues (1A and 1B) had higher values of mass loss. Not much, but these values are slightly lower than the values of other samples. The ash content was expressed as a percentage of the initial dry weight, and was inversely proportional to the humus content ranging from 9.18 to 14.8 % (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Humus and ash content

In general, each of the samples has a high content of organic matter, which is a general characteristic of peat described also in the literature [1, 3].

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Figure 3. Percentage content of extracted humic substances from peat

Extraction of humic substances indicates approximately 47-50% yield (Figure 3), in which humic acid represents 19 – 32 % and fulvic acid represents 18.5-19.5%. Preliminary elemental analysis tests show that the carbon content values are very low, which means that the isolated HA and FA still contain significant amount of foreign substances. CONCLUSIONS This study confirmed that the humic substance can fractioned based on their solubility. Yields of HSs depend very much on the extraction process (extracting, temperature, pre-treatment procedures, solvent and, mixing intensity). The results showed, that Comadău peat is an appropriate source, because it contains high amounts of organic matter. Though, we need to use another extraction method for fractionation of HSs. In the future, we will use the isolation method recommended by International Humic Substance Society for increasing the yield of HSs and for obtaining a more purified form of the HA and FA. REFERENCES 2. TAN, K.M. (2003) – Humic Matter in soil and the Environment (Principles and Controversies), Marcel Dekker, New York.

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3. ZACCONE, C. MIANO, T.M., SHOTYK W. (2007) – Qualitative comparison between raw peat and related humic acids in an ombrotrophic bog profile, Organic Geochemistry, 38, 151–160. 4. STEVENSON, F.J. (1994) – Humus chemistry: genesis, composition, reaction, John Wiley and Sons Inc. 5. MALAWSKA, M., EKONOMIUK, A., WIŁKOMIRSKI, B. (2006) – Chemical characteristics of some peatlands in southern Poland, Mires and Peat, 1, 1-14. 6. KLAVINS, M., SILAMIKELE, I., NIKODEMUS, O., KALNINA, L., KUSKE, E., RODINOV, V., PURMALIS O. (2009) – Peat properties, major and trace element accumulation in bog peat in Latvia, Baltica, 22 (1): 37-49. 7. SIRE, J., KLAVINS, M. (2007) – Methods for isolation and properties of peat humic substances, International conference Eco-Balt ‘2007, Riga, Latvia. 8. KLAVINS, M., SIRE, J. (2010) – Variations of humic acid properties within peat profiles, Mires and peat, 175-197. 9. SCHEPETKIN, I., KHLEBNIKOV, A., SE KWON, B. (2002) – Medical drugs from humus matter: focus on mumie, Drug Development Research, (57):140159. 10. ORRU, M. (2010) – Physical and chemical properties of Estonian balneological peat, 8th International Symposium „Topical Problems in the Field of Electrical and Power Engineering”, Parnu, Estiona, 140- 144, January 11-14. 11. ORRU, M., ÜBNER, M., ORRU, H. (2011) – Chemical properties of peat in three peatlands with balneological potential in Estonia, Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences, 60 (1): 43-49. 12. GIERLACH-HLADON, T., SZAJDAK, L. (2010) - Physico-chemical properties of humic acids isolated from an Eriophorum-Sphagnum raised bog, Mires and peat, 143-157. 13. BUZÁS I. (1988) – Soil and agrochemical methods 2 (Talaj- és agrokémiai vizsgálati módszerkönyv 2), Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, Budapest. 14. PAULETTE. L. (2007) - Pedologie: studiul solului în teren şi în laborator, Tudescu, Cluj-Napoca. 15. BUZÁS I., MEISEL T., MÁDY GY., SÁNDOR Z., LAKATOS B. (1990) Isolation of native clay-humic substance complexes from soil with chemical extraction method (Natív huminsav-agyagásvány komplexek kinyerése talajból kémiai extrakciós módszerrel) Agrokémia és Talajtan, 39156-163. CONTACT 1. Mónika Sándor, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, [email protected] 2. József Fazakas, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, [email protected]

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3. Ildikó Bartalis, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 4. Anna-Mária Szőke, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected]

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SIKÓ BARABÁSI Sándor, BOTOS Gyöngyvér, SÁNDOR Mónika, ANTAL Noémi, JAKABFI Anna Mária EVOLUTION OF COLLEMBOLAN POPULATION AS ECOTOXICOLOGICAL INDICATOR OF SOILS IN COVASNA COUNTY

Abstract. Edaphic microarthropods originating from collembolan species have an important role in soil forming, fragmentation and humification processes. These species reflect the ecological status of the soil. During the period from March to November 2013, soil samples were bimonthly collected from regions with different agricultural destinations in Ozun village, Covasna County. A total of 150 soil samples were examined. Specific diversity indices, equitability (specific dominance) and biomass indices were used for ecological analyse of accumulated faunistic materials. The largest number of springtail species and thus the largest number of individuals were found on fallow land (10 species, predominant by Parisotoma notabilis) followed by uncultivated grassland (10 species, predominant by Metaphorura denisi), soils used in the production of sugar beet (9 species, predominant by Parisotoma notabilis), soils used for cultivating summer rape (6 species, predominant by Sminthurinus elegans), soils used in the production of potatoes (5 species, predominant by Ceratophysella succinea) and finally soils used for growing barley (5 species, predominant by Ceratophysella denticulata). The obtained data showed that the variability of species and number of individuals were directly influenced by the land use type and the degree of pesticides and fertilizers application.

Keywords: Collembola, fertilizers, pesticides, equitability, diversity indices INTRODUCTION Collembolans or springtails are among the most abundant soil micro arthropods. Edaphic collembolans are an essential component of each biotope. Collembolans are a common invertebrate group in soil having a significant role in their operation, participating actively in the process of nutrients recycling, regulating the number of colonies of microorganisms. Collembolan communities are very sensitive to variations and vary in abundance and diversity negatively according to changes in vegetation, quality of litter materials, habitat structure and human induced disturbances related to land use practices. The soil disturbance negatively affects the Collembolan diversity in soil environment. These species reflect the ecological status of the soil, are called as a "standard soil test organisms" for testing of new chemicals used in agriculture (Winkler and Traser, 2012). Compared with other groups of invertebrates, especially insects, 194

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collembolan species are distinguished by continuous moulting throughout their life and its duration is longer than most insects (in some species up to 5 years). Members of Collembolans are highly tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions, including agricultural and industrial pollution, and they accumulate heavy metal ions in intracellular granules in the form of insoluble salts. This way of accumulation of toxins is considered as a major detoxification capacity of the soil (Bușmachiu, 2012). Covasna County has significant agricultural potential. Arable land amounts to over 83 000 ha (22.5%), grassland to almost 61 000 ha (16.5%), hay to approximately 41 000 ha (11%), orchards to around 4500 ha (0.3%), forests and other forest lands 44.5%, water and other surfaces to 5.2%. The cultivated arable land amounts to 97 % out of a total land used for agriculture. This proportion is significantly above the national average. Cereals prevail, 51% of total, followed by forage, 23% of the cultivated area and potatoes with 20.5%. Other important areas are cultivated with sugar beet and vegetables. Covasna County is among the largest potato and sugar beet producers at national level, where the growing conditions for these plants are ideal. Ozun village is located in the south-western part of Covasna County, on the right side of the Black River, at 515 m altitude above sea level. The climate of the studied area is transitional between temperate maritime climate and temperate continental climate, with low rainfall and temperatures. The average annual temperature is between 1 to 7.6 ºC, which is 3 °C lower than the national average. Average annual precipitation ranges from 500 to 650 mm. Soil types of the studied area are brunisolic, podzolic and chernozemic soils. These soils are characterized by a high content of humus and nutrients, being suitable for production of sugar beet, potatoes and forage. Generally, the soils of the studied area fall in the medium fertility class and to a smaller extent in high fertility class. MATERIALS AND METHODS During the period from March to November 2013, a sample was bimonthly collected (March, May, July, September, November) from each six research plots with different agricultural destination (fallow, fallow planted with sugar beets, uncultivated grassland, cultivated with barley, potato and summer rape respectively). A total of 150 soil samples were examined. The size of each sample was 100 cm3 and the samples were taken with metalic frames of 10 x 10 cm. Micro arthropods were extracted by flotation method and treated with alcohol (70 °C), and then separated with the help of a binocular microscope. Specific diversity, equitability (specific dominance) and biomass indices were used for ecological analyze of the accumulated faunistic materials. The integration and taxonomic classification of the isolated Collembolans were performed according to 195

the methods described by Dányi and Traser (2008), Gisin (1960), Hopkin (1997), Fiera (2007). When collecting the samples, the temperature, humidity and pH of the soil were measured. The study was performed taking into account: land use type, degree of fertilization and of pesticide application respectively, vegetation type, soil type and some physical soil parameters. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Depending on the agricultural destination of studied areas, they were fertilized with various fertilizers and crop protection against pests was accomplished by applying insecticides and fungicides, respectively (Table 1). Table 1. Assessed lands and applied fertilizers and pesticides

Fallow (6 ha)

Fertilizers / quantity kg/ha (indicated) -

Fallow – sugar beet (11 ha)

NPK 15.15.15 500 (400-500)

DECIS MEGA 50 EW 0,15 repeated 2 X (0.15)

Uncultivated grassland (22 ha)

Manure 800 (max. to 5000)

-

-

Barley (18 ha)

NPK 20.20.0 650 (400-600)

CLORPYRIFOS 500 EC 1,0 in minim 100 l water, repeated 2 X (0.7-0.9) DECIS MEGA 50 EW 0,25 repeated 3 X (0.15) DECIS MEGA 50 EW 0,15 repeated 2 X (0.15)

CARBENDAZIM 0.7 in 300 l water, repeated 2 X (0.6) ANTRACOL 70 WP 2.5 repeated 3 X (1.5-2.5) AMISTAR XTRA 0.6 (0.5-0.75)

Land use (studied plot size)

Potatoes (200 ha) Summer rape (41 ha)

NPK 15.15.15 600 (400-500) NP 20.20 500 (300-600)

Insecticides / quantity l/ha (indicated)

Fungicides / quantity l/ha (indicated)

-

CARBENDAZIM 0.4 in 300 l water, repeated 2 X (0.3)

After examining bimonthly taken soil samples from the six areas, there have been identified a total of 27 collembolan species and a number of 2868 individuals that morphologically belonged to the class of Collembola although we failed to identify the exact taxonomic affiliation of them. In the period from 2002 to 2012, Winkler and Traser (2012) have identified a total of 62 collembolan species in studied agricultural lands (fallow cultivated with rape, barley, potato and grassland respectively). Analyzing the specific diversity indices, equitability and biomass indices, it can be observed the specific diversity was the highest in fallow and uncultivated grassland. The number of identified species was 10 from the total of 27 species (37%) (Table 2).

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Table 2. Specific diversity, equitability and biomass

Land use types

Specific diversity (number of identified species )

Fallow

10

Fallow – sugar beet Uncultivated grassland

9 10

Barley

5

Potatoes

5

Summer rape

6

Equitability (Specific dominance) Parisotoma notabilis Parisotoma notabilis Metaphorura denisi Ceratophysella denticulata Ceratophysella succinea Sminthurinus elegans

Total biomass indices (Total number of Collembolans )

Specific biomass indices (no.)

The most prolific period

Periodic al biomass indices (no.)

4986

June

5344

16973

1491

Mai

1332

3731

5086

June

3107

10241

93

June

105

294

98

May

122

300

143

May

216

606

The highest total biomass index was found in the case of fallow with a total of 16973 isolated collembolans, followed by uncultivated grassland with a total of 10241 isolated collembolans. Similar results were obtained by Traser and Winkler (2012). In intensively cultivated lands (barley and potatoes), this diversity was much lower (18.5%), and total biomass index (294 and 300) was almost insignificant. Winkler and Traser (2012) shows, that monocultures are generally hindering the development of collembolan communities. According to Bakony (2006) on intensively used lands, the number of species of Collembola significantly decreases as a result of the prolonged effect of pesticides. The dominant species was Parisotoma notabilis (Figure 1) in the case of fallow and lands cultivated freshly with sugar beet, with average specific biomass index 4986 and 1491 respectively, with maximum number of specimens in June and May, respectively (5344 and 1332 specimens). On uncultivated grasslands, the dominant species was Metaphorura denisi ( Figure 2), with the average specific biomass index of 5086 specimens, and the highest numbers were found in June (3107 specimens). The samples from cultivated land with barley show that the dominant species was Ceratophysella denticulata (Figure 3), with average specific biomass index of only 93 individuals, with the maximum in June (105 specimens). Ceratophysella succinea had maximum equitability in lands cultivated with potato, with average specific biomass index of 98 individuals, with the maximum in May (122 specimens). Sminthurinus elegans (Figure 4) was the dominant species in

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rape culture, with the average specific biomass index of 143 specimens and the maximum number of specimens were isolated in May (216 specimens).

Figure 1. - Parisotoma notabilis

Figure 3. - Ceratophysella denticulata

Figure 2. - Metaphorura denisi

Figure 4. - Sminthurinus elegans

Analyzing the collembolan populations in arable lands located in Prahova County, Fiera (2011) identified 21 species and found the dominance of Isotoma viridi, Isotomurus sp. in alfalfa culture, Proisotoma minuta and Sminthurinus elegans in soils cultivated with rape, and Parisotoma notabilis in soils cultivated with wheat respectively. Fiera et al. (2013) describes 10 species of Collembolan in soil cultivated with rape and 8 species in soils cultivated with alfalfa. All these species showed a variable number of individuals depending on the type and amount of applied pesticide. The Parisotoma notabilis was the most abundant (6684 specimens) followed by Metaphorura denisi (5102 specimens). The lowest frequency of occurrence had the following species: Isostoma viridis (26 specimens) Protaphorura sakatoi (31 specimens), Mesaphorura critica (58 specimens), Proisotoma minuta (76 specimens) and Pseudosinella octopunctata (84 specimens) (Table 3). Table 3. Dominant collembolan species in studied geographical area

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No.

Identified species

Frequency in 6 plots

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Hypogastrura manubrialis Folsomia candida Ceratophysella denticulata Ceratophysella succinea Schoettella unguiculata Willemia virae Pseudachorutes parvulus Protapourara armata Metaphourara affinis Parisotoma notabilis Hypogastrura vernalis Isotomiella minor Entomobrya multifasciata Pseudosinella alba Pseudosinella octopunctata Sminthurinus aureus Axenyllodes bayeri Hypogastrura socialis Mesaphorura critica Mesaphorura italica Metaphorura denisi Folsomides parvulus Isotomodes productus Protaphorura sakatoi Proisotoma minuta Isostoma viridis Sminthurinus elegans Unidentified specimens

2 2 2 4 1 2 2 1 1 5 3 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6

Number of collected specimens 173 1174 398 824 1029 840 1451 2078 3841 6684 127 700 211 418 84 453 415 2179 58 258 5102 259 245 31 76 26 143 2868

Our investigations showed that variety of Collembolan species and the number of individuals significantly decrease in intensively cultivated soils and exposed to longterm effect of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Representatives of the group are among the most abundant micro arthropods in the rhizosphere of plants, mobilizing nutrients by selective grazing of fungi and bacteria. Different plant community hosts various collembolan complexes. Faunistic and ecological studies performed in various agrocoenoses have elucidated the relationship between plant species, biotic factors and the structure of invertebrate communities, including springtails. Generally collembolan complexes formed in agrocoenoses vary depending not only on the cultivated plant, but also on the agro-technical procedures necessary for plant growing. It was shown that a small number of collembolan species found favourable conditions for their development in soil with weeding crops, where mechanical intervention is increased (Bușmachiu, 2012). 199

Many farmers used different fertilizers and pesticides to increase the agricultural production. They have an adverse effect on the composition and optimal level of collembolan populations in soil. Because of the fact that collembolan populations play an important role in decomposition, mineralization and transformation of soil organic matter, especially of plant debris, the decomposition of these materials are slowed down so hindering a number of agricultural works and also contribute to the decrease of soil fertility, which needs a greater amount of fertilizers and pesticides and in this way a vicious circle is started. Thus, after performing specific Bakonyi tests (2006), it is recommended to withdraw or to avoid the intense use of pesticides but with unfavourable effects, such as: aldicarb, carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, lindane, benomyl. CONCLUSION 1. Based on this study, a total of 27 collembolan species were successfully identified. 2. The highest specific diversity has been found in the case of fallow field and uncultivated grassland respectively (by 10 species from 27 identified species 37 %). 3. The highest total biomass index has been found in the case of fallow field with a total of 16973 isolated Collembolans, followed by uncultivated grassland with a total of 10241 identified Collembolans. 4. Parisotoma notabilis had a highest frequency of occurrence, followed by Metaphorura denisi. 5. The rarest species were Isostoma viridis, Protaphorura sakatoi, Mesaphorura critical, Proisotoma minuta and Pseudosinella octopunctata. 6. Application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides had a negative effect on the composition and biomass of the collembolan populations.

REFERENCES 1.

BAKONYI G. (2006) – Toxicitás talajlakó szervezetekben, In Darvas B., Székécs A. (2006) – Mezőgazdasági ökotoxikológia, Ed. L’Harmattan, Budapest, ISBN: 963-7343-39-3, pp.135-139. 2. BUȘMACHIU G. (2012) – Colembolele (Hexapoda) din Republica Moldova: Taxonomie, Diversitate, Zoogeografie și Ecologie, Teză de doctor habilitat în biologie. Academia de Științe a Moldovei, Chișinău. 3. DÁNYI L., TRASER, GY. (2008) – An annotated checklist of the springtail fauna of Hungary (Hexapoda: Collembola), Opuscula Zoologica, ISSN 2063-1588, no.38, pp. 3-82. 200

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4. FIERA, C. (2007) – Checklist of Romanian springtails (Collembola), Folia Entomologica Hungarica, ISSN: 0373-9465, vol.68, pp. 5-40. 5. FIERA, C. (2011) – Species composition of springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) from some cultivated soils of Prahova county (Romania), Muzeul Olteniei, Craiova, Studii și comunicări. Științele naturii, ISSN: 1454-6914, vol.27, nr.1, pp.71-73. 6. FIERA, C., PURICE, D., MAICAN, S. (2013) – The communities structure of intervertebrate fauna from rape and alfalfa crops (Singureni, Giurgiu county, Romania), Cercetări Agronomice în Moldova, ISSN: 0379-5837, vol. XLVI , no. 4 (156), pp.65-74. 7. GISIN, H. (1960) – Collembolen fauna Europas, Museum d’Historie Naturelle, Geneve, ISSN 1175-5334 (Online Edition), pp.312. 8. HOPKIN, S. P. (1997) – Biology of Springtails (Insecta: Collembola), Ed.Oxford Univ., ISBN: 0198540841, pp. 183-326. 9. OECD: OECD Guidelines for testing on Chemicals. Summary of considerations in the report from the OECD expert group on Ecotoxicology, http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org. (accessed on 16.02.2014). 10. SOUSA J.P., BOLGER, T, . da GAMA, M. M., LUKKARI, T., PONGE, J.F., SIMON, C., TRASER, G., VANBERGEN, A.J., BRENNAN, A., DUBS, F., IVITIS, E., KEATING, A., STOFER, S., WATT, A. D. (2006) - Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a gradient of landuse intensity: A pan European study, Pedobiologia, ISSN-00314056, no.50, pp. 147-156. 11. WINKLER D., TRASER, GY. (2012) – Collembola Diversity in Agricultural Environments (Lajta Projekt, Western Hungary), International Scientific Conference on Sustainable Development & Ecological Footprint. March 26-27, Sopron, Hungary.

CONTACT 1. Sándor Sikó Barabási – University of Babeș-Bolyai, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 2. Gyöngyvér Botos, Gödri Ferenc School Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 3. Mónika Sándor, Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, [email protected] 4. Noémi Antal, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 5. Anna Mária Jakabfi, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected].

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SZŐKE Anna-Mária, MUNTEAN Marcela, BARTALIS Ildikó, SÁNDOR Mónika THE INFLUENCE OF CLAY FINENESS UPON SLUDGE RECYCLING IN A CERAMIC MATRIX

Abstract. The feasibility of sludge recycling in the ceramic manufacture was evaluated through laboratory testing. Such residues have similar chemical and mineralogical composition with the raw mixture of the green ceramic body used in construction. Several ceramic masses with clay and various proportion of sludge have been synthesized and then characterized by their physicalmechanical properties. The fineness of the clay, the main component of the green ceramic body, has been considered for every raw mixture. The proportion of the sludge waste addition depends on the clay fineness and the sintering capacity also, increases with the clay fineness. The ceramic properties, particularly, the open porosity, and mechanical properties, in presence of small sludge proportion (7.20 %) shows small modification. The introduction of such waste into building ceramic matrix (bricks, tiles, and plates) has a very good perspective.

Keywords: raw materials, clay fineness, ceramic matrix INTRODUCTION Nowadays society is not only concerned in finding new sources of raw materials, but also in recycling waste as new materials [1]. According to Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, Member States shall determine waste prevention programs by the end of 2013, which will be integrated into waste management plans or will operate as separate programs. Among the main types of waste existing in our country which are suitable for using in construction, which volume and characteristics justifying being studied, the research focused on recovery from power plant ash, phosphogypsum, blast furnace slag and to a lesser extent on urban sewage sludge RAW MATERIALS FOR CERAMICS A possible use of sewage sludge is to be used in producing construction ceramic. When we speak about gross construction ceramic we refer to ceramic matters in which composition falls the alumino-silicates, alkali, alkaline earth iron respectively fusible, vitrifiable clays and less refractory clays. . [2,3]. 202

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The variety of chemical and mineralogical composition of the raw materials, processing methods and burning conditions provide the products the most varied characteristics. Partial incorporation of sewage sludge in crude construction ceramic is a way to use them. [4,5]. THE EXPERIMENTAL PART Through specific operations performed, ceramics with a certain composition were obtained, having the granulation and homogenizing which matched the adopted molding process and the texture to be after heat treatment. In this paper we studied, by sieving, influence of particle size of raw materials: clay of Bodoc and sludge, on the properties of ceramic. The principle is simple and consists of passing the clay and sludge through a set of meshes corresponding to a to a particle size scales stacked from up to down, in decreasing order of their size. We used sieves the following sizes: 0.2, 0.09 and 0.063 mm. The following aspects were followed: • Specific methods of obtaining different compositions • Characterization of ceramics (compactness, resistance to bending). RESULTS The analysis of granulometric distribution of the clay particles has been done with a MALVERN Mastersizer 2000 laser granulometry analyzer in liquid suspension with a measurement scale between 0.02-600 microns. The granulometric bend of Bodoc clay is shown in Figure 1. The size of the particles ranges between 0.45 to 600 microns. There is a significant amount of small particles of 10-12 μm, in a single-mode distribution. The specific surface area has a value of 0.781 m2/g [7,8]. The analysis of granulometric distribution of the sludge particles has been done on the base of a FRITSCH Analisette 22 laser granulometry analyzer, in liquid suspension 0.1-600 microns. The granulometric bend of sludge is shown in Figure 2 and it hhighlights particle size with values between 1-108µm. The line is continuous, and it shows a cumulative shift. The specific surface area has a value of 0.59 m2/g [7,8]. The prepared mixtures are presented in Table 1. 203

Figure 1. Grain size distribution of clay Table 1. Prepared mixtures Sieve mesh size in mm Bodoc clay

Clay-sludge mixture

0.2

0.2

7

20

0.09

0.09

-

20

0.063

0.063

7

20

Percentage of added sludge,%

Figure. 2. Grain size distribution of sludge

We determined the compactness characteristics of the ceramic masses and they are presented in Table 2. These were burnt at 960 °C temperature. At the same time the resistance to bending of ceramics have been determined and are presented in Table 3. Table 2. Compactness characteristics (960°C) Ceramic mass

Clay

Sieve dimensi on

D

A

P

D

A

P

D

A

P

0.2

1. 90

15. 07

29.54

1.81

17.03

30.74

1.54

25.19

38.39

0.09

1. 88

15. 70

28.76

1.80

18.11

31.04

1.61

24.59

38.77

7% sewage sludge

20 % sewage sludge

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0.063

1.80

18.20

32.79

1.79

19.06

33.70

1.63

23.55

39.66

D – density A – adsorption P – porosity

Figure 3. The variation resistance to bending according to temperature Table 3. The variation resistance to bending according to temperature Ceramic mixture Sieve dimension

D [g/cm3] A [%] P [% vol]

Clay

7% sludge Rî[N/mm2] 3.25

20 % sludge

0.2

3.55

3.17

0.09

4.12

4.02

2.71

0.063

10.54

8.40

7.13

Φ [mm]

205

960

temperature, [°C]

Figure. 4. The variation of compactness characteristics according to temperature

CONCLUSION Based on the study, we can conclude that increasing the fineness of particles in ceramic masses have its influence on the following properties: • The increase of resistance to bending of the ceramic mixture is mainly due to the increase of particle fineness. • When you increase the fineness of the particles, the porosity values increase slightly. • It is clear that the sewage sludge samples, used in the experiments, from Saint George (Covasna) are proper for gross construction ceramics (bricks). REFERENCES 1. A.M. SZŐKE (2010) - The recovery of waste sludge from wastewater construction materials, PhD Raport, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania. 2. A.M., SZŐKE, M., MUNTEAN (2009) - Sludge recycling in ceramic matrix, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 8(4),p. 907-909. 3. A.M, SZŐKE, M., MUNTEAN, E., FAZAKAS, I. BARTALIS (2010) Methods of use of sewage sludge, Natura-Econ,.II., pg.122-124.

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4. S.R. TEIXEIRA, G.T.A. SANTOSA, A.E. SOUZAA, P. ALESSIOA, S.A. SOUZAA, N.R. SOUZA (2011) - The effect of incorporation of a Brazilian water treatment plant sludge on the properties of ceramic materials, Applied Clay Science, 53(4), p. 561-565. 5. L. C. MORAIS, R.S.C. VIANNA, V. CAMPOS, L. F. FRACETO, A.H. ROSA, P. M. BÜCHLER (2010) - Use of sludge as ceramic materials, Materials Science, Advanced Powder Technology, 660-661(7), p. 1003-1008. 6. I. MANOLIU, N. RADULESCU (2010) - Geotechnics I, Technical University of Construction Bucharest. 7. A.M, SZŐKE, M., MUNTEAN, I. BARTALIS (2011) - Researches based on the sludge from wastewater treatment plant Saint-George, I, p.132-139, INCD Ecoind, Bucharest. 8. I., BERCU (2011) - Studies and research on technology and use of sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants, University Tehnic Bucharest. CONTACT 1. Szőke Anna-Mária, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 2. Muntean Marcela, University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, [email protected] 3. Bartalis Ildikó, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Extension Sf.-Gheorghe, [email protected] 4. Sándor Mónika, Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of chemistry and Chemical Engineering, [email protected]

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FINANCE, ACCOUNTING, INTERNATIONAL TRADE BÍRÓ Bíborka Eszter THE SITUATION OF THE NON-REIMBURSABLE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES THROUGH THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME IN THE ROMANIAN NORTH-WEST REGION FOR THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD Abstract. The eligible investments from funds approved for the Regional Operational Program are defined by six axes, each axis containing more major intervention areas. The fourth axis targets the development of the local and regional entrepreneurial infrastructure. The 3rd major intervention area of the 4th axis, i.e. the 4.3 measure of the ROP makes possible the support of microenterprises. It is entitled: Strengthening the development of micro-enterprises. Present study proposes to give an insight into the situation of micro-enterprises located in the Romanian NorthWest Region, after which it presents the distribution of those micro-enterprises that claimed structural supports from ROP.

Keywords: micro-enterprise, North-West Programme, non-reimbursable funds

region,

Regional

Operational

INTRODUCTION The existence and well-functioning of enterprises contribute greatly to the competitiveness and development of a regional or national economy. Even in the EU enterprises are considered to have an accentuated role and an ever growing importance. For instance, in the reform package of Regional and Cohesion Policy for 2014-2020 programming period four priority areas with high growth potential were identified among which beside the Research and Innovation, Information and Communication Technologies and low-carbon economy, the SMEs are outlined. Present study firstly defines what micro-enterprises mean, after which gives an insight into the situation of micro-enterprises of the North-West Region. This is followed by the analysis of the situation of non-reimbursable supports allocated for micro-enterprises in the mentioned region, within which the distribution of the projects targeting the presented supports are presented.

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THE REGULATION OF MICRO-ENTERPRISES IN THE EU The legislation referring to small- and medium sized enterprises is Recommendation 2003/361/EC which came into force on the 1st of January 2005 and rewrote the previously existing provisions of Recommendation 96/280/EC. The recommendation accepted in 1996 was the first common legislation for the definition of SMEs and had a wide range of applicability on the EU’s level. The amendments introduced by the recommendation from 2003 were justified by the economic development since 1996. The definitions came into force in 2005 by the European Commission, extended to all regulation, programs and measures of the SMEs. The application of the definitions in the case of member states happens on a voluntary basis, yet the European Commission has expressed its request that together with the European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund these definitions should be applied as widely as possible. Romania has taken over and planted in its internal legislation the community regulation by law no. 346 since 2004 targeting the promotion of creation and development of SMEs. In the above mentioned legislation micro-enterprises are treated as a sub-category of accepted in 2005 the category of micro-, small- and medium sized enterprises is made up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 employees and either their annual turnover does not exceed 50 million euro or their annual balance sheet total does not exceed 43 million euro. The definition therefore includes constraints referring to three aspects of the enterprises: the number of employees, the annual balance sheet total and / or annual turnover. The condition referring to headcount is compulsory while among the other two conditions the fulfillment of whichever is sufficient. The regulation defines a micro-enterprise as any company whose headcount expressed in annual labor unit is strictly fewer than 10 and its annual turnover or annual balance sheet total is less than or equal to 2 million euro. This determination formulated on the level of the EU should not to be confused with the definition given by the Romanian Tax Code, which separates micro-enterprises for tax purposes, enabling them to pay instead of the 16% of their profit as corporate tax, 3% of their income (turnover). Related to this in 2012 the required conditions were: the company has income, the number of employees is not more than 9 persons, the company’s income does not exceed 100.000 euro, and company owners are not present in the state or local governments.38 The conditions according to which an enterprise can be considered as micro several times changed during 2013 and at the beginning of 2014 as well: actually the condition regarding the number of employees is abolished and the limit of the income is reduced to 65000 euro. Another important change refers to the abolition of the possibility to choose between the two types of taxes (corporate profit tax and income tax), the 38

Romanian Tax Code, Article112

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payment of the income tax of microenterprises has became an obligation if conditions mentioned above are fulfilled. In our study, regarding the 4.3 Major Intervention Area of the Regional Operational Programme “The support of the development of micro-enterprises” the target group is the group of micro-enterprises and given that the program is clearly related to the European Commission, the enterprises should fulfill the conditions defined in the recommendation of the European Commission. MICRO-ENTERPRISES IN THE NORTH-WEST REGION In Romania, according to statistics the number of registered and functioning enterprises was 452010 in 2011 and shows a decreasing tendency. The measure of the decrease almost remained the same from 2010 to 2011 as it was from 2009 to 2010, of about 10%. The data referring to year 2011 shows that more than 87% of the enterprises in Romania are micro-enterprises according to the previously presented determination taking into account the criterion laid down for the headcount (394,059 out of the total 452,010 enterprises). The share of micro-enterprises in the total number of active enterprises in the North-West Region is not significantly different from the national average. Similarly, investigating the density of the enterprises per thousand inhabitants, we can say that the North-West Region is almost at the same level as the national average, which according to the data from 2011 is 21.10 firms per thousand inhabitants, while this value in the North-West Region is 22.95 companies per thousand inhabitants, being slightly over the national average. Within the region, the highest density appears in Cluj County (32.32 enterprises/thousand inhabitants) and the lowest value occurs in the case of Maramures, Bistrita-Năsăud and Sălaj Counties, the values being 17.21; 17.28 respectively 17.5 enterprises per thousand inhabitants.39 Table 1: Number of enterprises in the North-West Region Size classes of enterprises Total 0-9 persons 10-49 persons

2007

2008

74,550 65,446 7,495

80,446 71,267 7,541

Years 2009 2010 MU: Number 77,731 69,602 69,188 61,339 7,154 7,002

2011 62,381 54,236 6,910

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Own calculations based on National Institute of statistics, http://statistici.insse.ro/shop/ (12.01.2013) data

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50-249 persons 250 persons and more

1,375 234

1,413 1,197 1,075 1,063 225 192 186 172 Source: NIS, http://statistici.insse.ro/shop/

The decreasing tendency of the number of enterprises and within the category the reduction of the number of micro-enterprises is the result of the economic and financial crisis. The rate of decrease in the number of micro-enterprises at national level was 20.39% in the period of 2008-2011. A contrary trend was noticed from 2007 to 2008, when the number of micro-enterprises increased with 6.27% from 465,807 to 495,019. In the North-West Region in 2011 the number of microenterprises was 54,236, while this value in 2008 showed 71,267; this means a 22.45% decrease in three years’ time, while an almost 9% increase was characteristic from 2007 to 2008, the number of micro-enterprises decreasing from 65,446 to 71,267 before the appearance of the global financial and economic crisis. The increase of the mentioned period in the North-West Region was above the national average increase (6.27%). This accentuated decrease can be explained on the one hand with the appearance and development of the economic and financial crisis, on the other hand by the introduction of lump sum taxation of the enterprises, the legal regime of which was accepted from the second half of 2009 until October 2010. The decline mostly affected enterprises from processing industry and construction sector. SUPPORTS FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES FROM ROP IN THE NORTHWEST REGION For the 2007-2013 programming period Romania according to the convergence objective has elaborated seven operational programs. The total value of the structural aid offered by the EU through the seven Operational Programs during the mentioned programming period was 19.21 billion euro. This is complemented by the national co-financing part, reaching together an amount of 24.2 billion euro. One of the seven Operational Programs is the Regional Operational Programme which offers an amount of 4.43 billion euro of non-reimbursable supports (including the national contribution; the amount from European Regional Development Fund being 3.75 billion euro). From this, 12.09%, 536.41 million euro is allocated to the North-West Region. The ROP, taking into account the special needs of the regions encourages the sustainable development of the cities, as potential growth poles and the improvement of the economic environment and basic infrastructure. The eligible investments from funds approved for ROP are defined by six axes, each axis containing more major intervention areas. The fourth axis targets the development of the local and regional entrepreneurial infrastructure. The 3rd major intervention area of the 4th axis, i.e. the 4.3 measure of the ROP makes possible the support of micro-enterprises. It is entitled: Strengthening the development of micro211

enterprises. The sum allocated in the context for the 4th priority axis amounts 709.89 million euro, from this the North-West Region receives an amount of 95.57 million euro. The allocation for measure 4.3 at national level amounts 200.9 million euro from the European Regional Development Fund and 24.19 million euro in the North-West Region. Table 5: The distribution of the EU funds allocated for ROP 4.3 major intervention area by regions (million EUR) North- South SouthNorthBucharestRegion South West Center East -East West West Ilfov Allocated Fund

32.66

26.51

28.47

28.03

20.69

24.19

21.81

17.73

Source: Owneditionbasedonhttp://www.inforegio.ro/node/18 data

Table 5 contains the distribution by regions of the public funds allocated for ROP’s 4.3 major intervention area. For the examined North-West Region 12% of the total regional aid is allocated for the seven years programming period. Through the 4.3 main intervention area of the ROP are eligible to claim for nonreimbursable financial aid those micro-enterprises, which have the legal form of commercial or cooperative societies, are functioning for at least one year, prior to the submission of the project have realized profit, have sufficient financial resources to carry out their project and have chosen as location for project implementation a urban settlement. The aid intensity was 70% in the case of applications advertised in 2008 and has increased to 100% due to the economic and financial crisis for applications in the period of 2009 – 2010. At the same time, together with the increase of the aid intensity, the Regional Operational Programme Monitoring Committee has decided the redeployment of the amount of money allocated through the second main intervention area of the 4th axis of the ROP, namely “Rehabilitation of polluted sites and preparation for new activities” to the support of micro-enterprises (4th axis, 3rd intervention area). This way, the 24.19 million euro was completed and achieved a value of 34.56 million euro.40 THE DISTRIBUTION OF MICRO-ENTERPRISES WITH SUBMITTED AND APPROVED PROJECTS IN THE NORTH-WEST REGION Taking into account the number of contracted projects, according to the data collected in December 2012, in the North-West Region there were 241 contracted projects within the ROP 4.3 intervention area. The total value of these investments 40

http://www.mdlpl.ro/_documente/POR/anexa_comunicat_alocare_regiuni.pdf (06.02.2013) http://www.nord-vest.ro/en/Regional-Operational-Programme/INFORMATION/POR-News/MCROP-decisions-Possibilities-for-micro-enterprises-to-obtain-100-percent-financing-and-for-fundsredistribution--eID768.html (06.02.2013)

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(including EU contribution, national contribution and private contribution) showed 197.25 million lei which means about 45 million euro. The fact that the measure of available EU funds for the North-West Region through ROP 4.3 area is 34.56 million euro (after the redeployment from ROP 4.2 measure) should not be deceiving, because the total value of the investments contains the national contribution, the private contribution of the beneficiary, and - which is even more important- the value of non-eligible expenditures as well, the amount of which shows about 52.7 million lei (12 million euro). Among the total number of micro-enterprises in the North-West Region 0.38% claimed and received non-reimbursable supports through the ROP 4.3 main intervention area. (241 micros - data collected in December 2012 - have signed the financing contracts out of the 62,381 microenterprises from the North-West Region). Regarding the number of projects receiving subsidies (providing financing contracts, n=241) Cluj-Napoca occupies the first place with a number of 77 submitted projects. Besides, in Cluj County there are 4 projects in Câmpia Turzii, one project in Huedin and one project in Dej. This way, Cluj County with its value of 83 submitted projects in the case of which financing contracts are signed, occupies the first place within the six counties of the North-West Region regarding the number of projects. As a natural consequence of the mentioned fact, the value of submitted and approved projects shows the highest value in Cluj County, namely 63.63 million lei. The next county - regarding both the number of submitted projects and the values of them- is Bihor County with 47 projects, among of which 42 belong to the main city, Oradea. The total value of the projects in the county is 35.83 million lei, from which 32.59 million lei is concentrated in Oradea. Besides Oradea, in Bihor County there are 3 projects in Beius with a total value of 1.72 million lei, one project in Alesd with a value of about 1 million lei, and one project in Sântion, the value of which is 0.5 million lei. The third county of the North-West Region in the ranking is Satu Mare with 35 projects, the value of which shows 30.94 million lei. Here we should mention that Maramures County has more projects expressed in number (37), but the total value of them remains behind. The scattering of the projects among the towns of the county is higher in this case compared to the above presented tendencies, slightly more than half of the money concentrating in the main city, Satu Mare, namely 16.73 million lei which includes 20 application projects. Another 10 projects belong to Carei with a value of 9.2 million lei, one project belongs to Negresti-Oas (1.4 million lei), one to Ciuperceni (almost 0.5 million lei) and three to Tasnad (3.14 million lei).

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Figure1: The distribution of the projects (in value) in the North-West Region

As mentioned before Maramures County has 37 submitted and approved projects for strengthening the development of micro-enterprises, the total value of them amounts 26, 87 million lei. Maramures is the county from the North-West Region where the number of involved towns is the highest, the micro-enterprises applying for supports having their headquarters in eight different towns. The main city of the county, Baia Mare, has 24 projects with a value of 16.91 million lei, it is followed by Borsa with five projects, the value of which is 5.95 million lei, Baia Sprie and Seini with two-two projects and Targu Lapus, Sasar, Tăutii Măgherus and Viseu de Sus, each with one projects, altogether with a value of 4 million lei.

Figure 2: The distribution of the projects (in number) in the North-West Region

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Sălaj County has 28 projects in a value of 25.48 million lei, it is distributed among the enterprises of three towns from the county: Zalău, the main city (20 projects, 18.08 million lei), Simleul Silvaninei (5 projects, 3.82 million lei) and Jibou (3 projects, 3.58 million lei). The worst performing county among the six counties of the North-West Region is Bistrita-Năsăud with 11 projects and 14.54 million lei. Ten projects belong to micro-enterprises established in the main city, Bistrita (13 million lei) and a single project belongs to micro-enterprise headquartered in Năsăud (1.54 million lei). CONCLUSION In conclusion it can be said that the vast majority of the enterprises in Romania, such as in its North-West Region are considered to be micro-enterprises according to the definition of the EU. This way, they are eligible for the 4.3 main intervention area of the Regional Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programming period. Another conclusion is that in the North-West Region the claim for grants is concentrated in the more developed counties and within them in the larger cities.

REFERENCES 1.Az új KKV meghatározás, Felhasználói Útmutató és Kézikönyv, Vállalkozás- és Iparpolitikai Kiadványok, Európai Bizottság: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/sme_definition/sme_user_guide_h u.pdf , acccessed at: 02.04.2012 2. Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (A Bizottság 2003 május 6-i ajánlása a mikro- , kis- és középvállalatok meghatározására vonatkozóan)- 2003/361/EC, http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:124:0036:0041:EN:PDF, accessed at: 02.04.2012 3. Nemzeti Stratégiai Referencia Keret- National Strategic Reference Framework 2007-2013, http://amposcce.minind.ro/fonduri_structurale/CSNR_engleza_261109.pdf, accessed at 03.03.2013 4. Romanian Tax Code http://static.anaf.ro/static/10/Anaf/Legislatie_R/Cod_fiscal_norme_2014.htm#_Toc 304299811 (18.02.2014) 5. Sprijinirea dezvoltării întreprinderilor. Ghidul solicitantului http://www.inforegio.ro/node/18 accessed at: 10.04.2012

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6. Institutul National de Statistica, baza de data tempo online https://statistici.insse.ro/shop/ accessed at 12.04.2013 7.http://www.mdlpl.ro/_documente/POR/anexa_comunicat_alocare_regiuni.pdf acessed at 06.02.2013 8.http://www.nord-vest.ro/en/Regional-OperationalProgramme/INFORMATION/POR-News/MC-ROP-decisions-Possibilities-formicro-enterprises-to-obtain-100-percent-financing-and-for-funds-redistribution-eID768.html accessed at 06.02.2013 CONTACT 1. Bíborka Eszter Bíró, Babes-Bolyai University, biro_biborka @yahoo.com

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BÍRÓ Bíborka Eszter, TAMÁS Ervin FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE NON-REIMBURSABLE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES THROUGH THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME IN THE ROMANIAN NORTH-WEST REGION FOR THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD

Abstract. Present study proposes to analyze the financial impacts of the non-reimbursable supports allocated for micro-enterprises in the North West Region from the Regional Operational Program in the 2007-2013 programming period. It uses the data of 60 enterprises which have implemented their projects by the end of 2011 among the 241 micro-enterprises that have signed the financing contracts within the ROP 4.3 intervention area by the end of 2012. The study contains two subchapters, analyzing the profitability indicators of the beneficiary companies and their balance sheets as well.

Keywords: micro-enterprise, North-West region, Programme, profitability, balance sheet analysis

Regional

Operational

INTRODUCTION The financial-economic analysis of present study includes the financial data of those enterprises which have finalized their investment from the EU subsidies offered for micro-enterprises through the 3rd main intervention area of the 4th axes of Regional Operational Programme (n=60) by the end of 2011. In the case of ROP 4.3 major intervention area, in Romania there were two calls for application, one in 2008 and another in the 2009-2010 period. Out of the 60 analyzed enterprises 44 submitted their projects with the occasion of the first call, and the others with the occasion of the second one. The results of the calculations show the average values of 60 enterprises for the years between 2007-2011. The financial analysis consists of two parts: firstly the profitability is examined using data from the profit and loss accounts of each individual enterprise with the help of indicators like ROE and ROA; this is followed by a balance-sheet analysis, which points out the evolution of fixed assets and liabilities as well. PROFITABILITY 217

The profitability of the examined enterprises was analyzed through different indicators. First of all, with the help of the profit and loss account the changes over the time of the average values of revenues, expenditures and gross profit were analyzed. The average turnover of the examined micro-enterprises was compared to an average turnover value containing the data of all micro-enterprises from the North-West Region for each year. The results are shown by Figure . Here a note is important to be made: The legitimacy of the calculated average turnover, expenditure and gross profit values is confirmed: the waste majority of the examined enterprises belong to the services sector, this way, the pooling of the different values in order to calculate arithmetic average is not misleading.

Figure 1: The development of revenues, expenditures and gross profit expressed in lei of the micro-enterprises that claimed for supports (n=60)

It is clearly visible that the turnover value of the enterprises which claimed and got supports from EU funds is situated much more over the value which compresses the turnover values of all micro-enterprises from the North-West Region. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that enterprises which require nonreimbursable supports are more developed and most of them belong to the tertiary sector. Firms claiming for non-reimbursable supports need to have significant selfcontribution because even the compilation of the application documentation requires a few thousand of euros. The more developed enterprises are those that have a worked out investment and improvement plan, think in typically long term strategy and have the attempt to allocate optimally the required resources in order to be able to accomplish their goals. 218

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Table 1: Return on assets and return on equity indicators (n=60)

Year/Indicator 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

ROA 17.83% 24.47% 11.72% 4.15% 4.14%

ROE 46.64% 53.26% 31.88% 10.02% 13.02%

Source: Own edition based on own calculations Table 1 indicates the average proportion of net profit compared to assets and respectively to equity in the case of the 60 examined micro-enterprises. Both of the indicators show a significant decrease in the analyzed period. The decrease in the values of return on assets is caused on the one hand by the continuous reduction of the net profit, on the other hand by the increase in assets due to the investment. As we can see, at short time period the new investments do not generate extra profit. The high value of the return on assets at the beginning of the examined period reflects the undercapitalization of waste majority of the analyzed firms. By the end of the examined period the decrease of the ROE value is significant, which is caused by the capitalization of the preceding year’s net profit and by the accentuated decrease of the net profit. Mathematically speaking, the examined ratios are exposed to two impacts –increase of the denominator and decrease of the numerator - both of them exercising a downward pressure to the fraction. Besides, it is necessary to mention the negative effect of the financial and economic crisis, due to which generally the profit of the enterprises decreased comparing the pre and post 2008 period. The most dramatic decreases appeared from 2008 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2010, in 2011 maintaining the level of year 2010 or achieving even a higher value (in the case of ROE). ANALYSIS OF THE BALANCE SHEET The analyzed enterprises, just like the other ones, were unable to adequately handle the effect of the global economic and financial crisis. The revenue of these companies decreased and this phenomenon was not associated with the reduction of the expenditures, this way, the profitability of these firms decreased as well. It is a compulsory condition to a company that wants to claim for non-reimbursable supports financed by the EU, to realize profit in the preceding year when the application is submitted. It can also be observed that after the completion of some of the investment projects, by the end of year 2010, more than one third of the analyzed companies concluded the year with loss (among the 44 firms that have finished their investment projects by then). This could show that enterprises benefiting from nonreimbursable supports, compared to their resources and existing operating 219

tendencies undertook more than they can cope with. However it is a positive tendency that by the end of 2011 slightly one-sixth of the mentioned companies finished the year with loss, the others achieving profit (10 out of the 60 analyzed enterprises).

Figure 2: The development of immobilized assets, current assets and liabilities expressed in lei of the micro-enterprises that claimed for supports in the 2007-2011 period (n=60)

What is more, it is clearly visible that by the end of 2011 the increase in the enterprises’ immobilized assets was more accentuated than in the case of their liabilities, which shows that companies realizing investment projects from nonreimbursable supports are on track and realize improvement. The above figure shows how the fixed assets, current assets and liabilities of examined enterprises have changed over the period of the analysis. We compared the fixed assets with the VAT excluded average value of the investments realized from non-reimbursable supports. The VAT excluded average value of the investments is 423,648.45 lei. It can be observed that the value of fixed assets realized a significant increase. The most accentuated increase is characteristic from 2010 to 2011 when the average immobilized assets value grew from 548,219.7 lei to 800,869.6 lei, realizing a more than 46% increase. Within the category of current assets the growth is attributable to the increase in currency stock and receivables (stocks remained unchanged or even decreased). The increased level of cash balance is the consequence of subsequent settlement, but the level of receivables also increased which can be partly explained by the “delayed payment behavior” of the obligors. Figure also shows the continuous growth of the liabilities. One of its causes is considered to be the fact that the investments are financed by bank loans and intercompany loans. In the case of non-reimbursable 220

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supports enterprises have to assure self-contribution, have to finance the VAT and because of the subsequent settlement have to pre-finance the investment and have to finance other, incremental expenses. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion it can be said that in the region, micro-enterprises which claim for non-reimbursable supports generally have higher turnover values than the average, are more informed and implement higher-value investments. In the North-West Region in connection with the examined topic, the support of micro-enterprises, it can be stated that the purchased assets did not increased the short term profitability of the companies, at the same time it can be concluded that the investments have significantly increased the value of fixed assets and shareholder’s equity. However, it is not a negligible aspect that after the retrieval of the financing resources, these enterprises were affected by the global financial and economic crisis, which partly explains the fail of direct profitability increase. Present study suggests perspectives for further research. One additional development to this study should be the repetition of the presented analysis after the completion of investments in the case of all the 241 microenterprises. Besides, it should be interesting to examine not only the short term financial effects of the allocated sums of money and of the investments realized by them, but the mid-term and long term effects as well. However, for these analyses time should elapse and new data have to be published.

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REFERENCES 1. Nemzeti Stratégiai Referencia Keret- National Strategic Reference Framework 2007-2013, http://amposcce.minind.ro/fonduri_structurale/CSNR_engleza_261109.pdf, accessed at 04.07.2013 2. Sprijinirea dezvoltării întreprinderilor. Ghidul solicitantului (A mikrovállalkozások fejlődésének támogatása. Pályázati útmutató, http://www.inforegio.ro/node/18 accessed at 05.07.2013 3. Institutul National de Statistica, baza de data tempo online https://statistici.insse.ro/shop/ accessed at 13.04.2012 4. www.mfinante.ro – financial data of the examined micro-enterprises, accessed at 15.07-15.08.2012 CONTACT 1. Bíborka Eszter Bíró, Babes-Bolyai University, biro_biborka @yahoo.com 2. Ervin Tamás, Regional Consulting and Management SA, godvin @gmail.com

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CSŐSZ Csongor THE FINANCIAL AUDIT OF THE TANGIBLE ASSETS AND THE ACCOUNTING POLICIES APPLIED BY ENTITIES FOR THEM

Abstract: Each year an entity’s assets in anual financial statements need to be evaluated. The accounting policies applied have major influences on the financial statements, so establishing the accounting policy that the entity consistently uses is an important activity. The financial auditors within the financial statement audit engagement should express an opinion about the financial statements, to ensure the users that the financial statements are prepared, in accordance with an applicable financial reporting framework. The objective of this paper is to present the necessity of the financial audit and the opinion of the entities about financial audit in Romania and Hungary. Also we analyze the accounting policies applied for tangible assets, by entities whose annual financial statements are audited and by entities whose annual financial statements are not audited in Romania and Hungary.

Key words: financial audit, accounting policy, evaluation bases JEL classification: M41

INTRODUCTION The purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements. This is stated by the auditor whether the financial statements are prepared in accordance with an applicable financial reporting framework (ISA 200). The auditor can identify a falsification in the financial situations and in this case he must analyze if such a falsification can indicate a fraud and when such a clue exists the auditor must analyze the implications of falsification in relation with other audit aspects, especially those related to the credibility of the leadership’s declarations (Avram & Avram, 2008). What does it mean to audit a problem form financial point of view, such as the tangible assets? - inquires Domnişoru & Vînătoru (2008). The need to have an opinion, to proclaim that the transactions, transformations and amounts, in some cases millions, even billions of euros are presented reasonably fair in the financial statements of the entity. Auditors must make this diagnosis based on convincing 223

evidence, to provide a certain transparency in a world where lying is an everyday fact. In other words, the auditors must be aware of their responsibility and the moral, juridical and psychological engagement the audit process requires. OBJECTIVES The main objective of this empirical study is to analyze the accounting policies applied for evaluation of the tangible assets by entities in Romania and Hungary, whose financial statements have been audited and whose financial statements have not been audited. The main purpose of the comparative study was to examine whether significant differences exist between evaluation processes and methods used by entities in Romania and Hungary. Furthermore we examine the auditors’ opinion about necessity of financial audit and the opinion of the entities about the financial auditing of the annual financial statements. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY For this empirical study a questionnaire was used – as research technique that includes a predetermined set of questions, to ensure the posibility to analyze the respondents opinions. The accounting policies applied by the entities in Romania and Hungary for tangible assets and furthermore the opinion of the auditors about the necessity of the financial audit were analyzed. HYPOTHESIS General hypothesis In case of entities in Romania and Hungary the predominant criteria for design evaluation system of the tangible fixed assets whose financial statements are audited show significantly different from the criteria taken into account by the entities whose financial statements are not audited. Statistical hypothesis H 01 : No more than four (three in the case of Hungary) procedures / methods of evaluation show statistically significant difference between the financial statements of entities whose financial statements have been audited and entities whose financial statements have not been audited. H 11 : More than four (three in the case of Hungary) procedures / methods of evaluation show statistically significant difference between the financial statements

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of entities whose financial statements have been audited and entities whose financial statements have not been audited. RESULTS AND DISCUSIONS Regarding the accordance with the approved accounting policies of the entity the following elements were analyzed: substantive procedures in the audit of tangible fixed assets, substantive procedures for asset inflows, audit of the revaluation, audit of the tangible assets outflows, tangible fixed asset inventory audit, audit of tangible fixed assets balances, checking the existence, physical condition and the right over the fixed assets, auditing of disclosures in the financial statements, analysis of accounting policies and audit the depreciation methods of the tangible assets, audit of the impairment of tangible assets and analysis of the tangible assets evaluation. Then significant differences between the following procedures / methods used by entities whose financial statements have been audited and entities whose financial statements have not been audited were tested: 1. The criteria used to recognize the tangible assets 2. Evaluation basis used to present tangible assets in annual financial statements 3. Recognition of the impairment of tangible fixed assets in annual financial statements 4. Recognition of revaluation reserves of fixed assets in the financial statements of 2012 5. Groups of tangible assets that were revalued in 2012 6. Amortization methods used by entities 7. Recognition of residual value of tangible fixed assets 8. The amount of the residual value of tangible fixed assets compared to the input value 9. The treatment of the costs related to the acquisition of tangible fixed assets 10. The treatment of the costs of renovation, maintenance and repair of tangible assets in “questionable, interpretation” cases 11. The solution applied to the assets which have tax value below the limit set by Government decision and the duration of use is greater than one year Verification of the existence of significant difference between evaluation methods and solutions applied by entities whose financial statements have been audited and entities whose financial statements have not been audited was performed by using 2 the Chi-square (  ) association or independence test.

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The purpose of applying the test is to verify the relation between two nominal variables, or comparisons of frequencies between two independent samples, the independent variable is: evaluation methods, accounting practices and the dependent variable is: audited financial statements or unaudited financial statements. The types of entities that have been included for testing this hypothesis are: medium entities in Romania and micro and small entities in Hungary. The reasons for which we chose these two groups of entities to test our hypothesis are as follows: the number of micro and small entities who have audited the financial statements was very low according to the answers given by accountants from Romania, in Hungary all of the medium entities financial statements were audited according to the answers given by accountants. Audit the annual financial statements Entities

Yes

Table 1. Total

No

Medium entities – Romania

33

72

105

Micro and small entities – Hungary

27

254

281

Medium entities – Romania 1. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 0.693, p = 0.707> 0.05] this means that the criteria used to recognize the tangible assets do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. 2. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 10.493, p = 0.005 < 0.05], this means that the evaluation bases applied by medium entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Because phi = 0.316, with reference to the criteria of Cohen (1988), it can be stated that financial statements auditing has moderate strength relation to the evaluation bases used. The research results shows that entities whose financial statements have been audited use in higher rate the alternative evaluation basis – revalued amount, to present the tangible assets in the financial statements. 3. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 13.532, p = 0.001 < 0.05], this means that the impairment recognition at medium entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Because phi = 0.364, with reference to the criteria of Cohen (1988), we say that auditing of the financial statements have moderate strength relation to the impairment recognition. The research

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4.

5.

6. 7.

8. 9.

results show that entities whose financial statements have been audited, more frequently recognize impairment of tangible assets. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 36.898, p = 0.000 < 0.05], this means that the recognition of revaluation reserves by medium entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Because phi = 0.607, so the audit of the financial statements have strong relation to the recognition of revaluation reserves. The research results show that most entities whose financial statements have been audited not recognize revaluation reserves in financial statements prepared for 2012, this situation may be caused by the fact that the value of construction in recent years according to housing market declined, so in the case of revaluations a reduction of revaluation reserves previously established is achieved. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 25.599, p = 0.001 < 0.05], this means that the groups of tangible assets that were revalued in 2012 by medium entities differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Because phi = 0.596, so the audit of the financial statements have strong relation to the revalued tangible assets groups. Whitin the entities whose financial statements have been not audited in 2012 were revalued buildings in all 55 cases, in the case of audited financial statements were revalued in 2012 in addition to buildings, separate technical equipment and land, respectively in 3 cases were revalued all tangible assets towards an entity within the entities whose financial statements were not audited. The used depreciation methods do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 12.791, p = 0.012 < 0.05], this means that the recognition of residual value by medium entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.746, which indicates a strong relation between the two variables. The research results show that within the entities whose financial statements have been not audited in 2012, was recognized residual value at 11 entities for motor vehicles, at the entities whose financial statements have been audited was recognized residual value at 1 entity. The amount of the residual value of tangible assets (buildings, technical equipments, motor vehicles) compared with the input value do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = = 36.094, p = 0.000 < 0.05], this means that the treatment of the costs related to the acquisition for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Because phi = 0.586, so the audit of 227

the financial statements have strong relation to the treatment of the costs related to the acquisition. In the case of unaudited financial statements the costs related to the acquisition of tangible assets are not incorporated in the asset value in rate of 62.5% of the total entities. In the case of audited financial statements the costs related to the acquisition of tangible assets are incorporated in the asset value. 10. The treatment of the costs of renovation, maintenance and repair of tangible assets in “questionable, interpretation” cases do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. 11. The solution applied to the assets which have tax value below the limit set by Government decision and the duration of use is greater than one year do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Micro and small entities – Hungary 1. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 60,237, p = 0,000 < 0.05] this means that, criteria used to recognize the tangible assets, differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.463, between the two variables the relation is moderate. The research results show that the entities whose financial statements have been audited, use in higher rate the economic criteria for recognition the tangible assets. 2. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 32,521, p = 0,000 < 0.05], this means that the evaluation bases applied by entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.340, between two variables the strength of relation is moderate. The research results show that entities whose financial statements have been audited use in higher rate the alternative evaluation basis – revalued amount, to present the tangible assets in the financial statements. 3. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 90,660, p = 0,000 < 0.05], this means that the impairment recognition at micro and small entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.568, which indicates a strong relation between the two variables. Entities whose financial statements have been audited more frequently recognize impairment of tangible assets. 4. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 5,369, p = 0,02 < 0.05], this means that the recognition of revaluation reserves by entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.138, which indicates a moderate strength relation between the two variables. The research results show that the entities whose financial statements have been audited, recognize revaluation

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reserves in financial statements prepared for 2012, in higher rate compared with unaudited financial statements. 5. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 7,370, p = 0,025 < 0.05], this means that the groups of tangible assets that were revalued in 2012 by micro and small entities differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.334, which indicates a moderate strength relation between the two variables. The research results show that in the case of audited financial statements were revalued buildings only compared to unaudited financial statements where were revalued beside buildings, tehnical echipaments and motor vehicles. 6. The used depreciation methods, do not differ significantly, of the fact that annual financial statements are audited or not. 7. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 47,531, p = 0,000 < 0.05], this means that the recognition of residual value by micro and small entities for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.643, which indicates a strong relation between the two variables. In the audited financial statements 10 entities of 24 recognized residual value for construction, tehnical equipment and motor vehicles, while the entities whose financial statements were not audited prefer to recognize residual value only for certain groups of tangible assets. 8. The amount of the residual value of tangible assets (buildings, technical equipments, motor vehicles) compared with the input value, differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.770, which indicates a strong relation between the two variables. In the case of audited financial statements residual value of the construction is less than in the unaudited financial statements, respectively the residual value of the tehnical equipment is higher in the audited financial statements to the than in the unaudited financial statements. 9. Pearson Chi-Square test result is the following [  2 (2) = 25,874, p = 0,000 < 0.05], this means that, the treatment of the costs related to the acquisition for tangible assets differ significantly regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Phi = 0.770, which indicates a moderate strength relation between the two variables. In majority of the cases the costs related to the acquisition of tangible assets are incorporated in the asset value. 10. The treatment of the costs of renovation, maintenance and repair of tangible assets in “questionable, interpretation” cases, do not differ significantly, regardless annual financial statements are audited or not. Validation of the hypothesis

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In both countries an alternative hypothesis is validated between procedures / methods of evaluation applied by entities whose financial statements are audited and whose financial statements are not audited is significant difference. Summary of the opinions of financial auditors in Romania and Hungary regarding the necessity of the financial audit:  the financial statements reflect the correct, real and true image of the patrimony and present the result of economic processes in real and sincere way  they protect the public interest by ensuring the conformity of financial statements regarding the requirements of an identified financial reporting framework to external users  the necessity of the financial audit, required by legislation help the entities to construction an acceptable accounting culture of the entities  in case of many economic entities the presentation of the annual real result can be ensured only by financial statements auditing Summary of financial auditors` answers from Romania and Hungary regarding the the financial audit on the financial statements:  if the audit helps to increase business value and reduces of risks the perception is positive  the absence of entrepreneurial culture is manifested on the market, the financial audit is viewed as a plus expense by small and medium investors  about half of the entities considers it as an extra expense, the rest of entities considers it as a\ consultancy and supervision of the accounting entities  a totally objective opinion regarding economic entities about financial audit in Hungary in 2012 changed the condition of the obligation to audit the financial statements (increased turnover limit), seven entities out of eight, of an audit company does not want the audit of their financial statements in the future CONCLUSIONS Based on the analysis significant differences were found between the procedures/methods of evaluation applied by entities whose financial statements are audited and whose financial statements are not audited. We note two important differences from the economic point of view, in case of medium entities in Romania and micro and small entities in Hungary, whose financial statements have been audited use in higher rate the alternative evaluation basis – revalued amount, to present the tangible assets in the financial statements, respectively more frequently recognize impairment of tangible assets. Furthermore we mention one important similarity of the procedures/methods of evaluation 230

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applied by the two groups of entities: depreciation methods do not differ significantly at entities whose financial statements are audited and whose financial statements are not audited REFERENCES 1. AVRAM, M. & AVRAM, A. (2008) Consideraţii privind responsabilitatea auditorilor financiari de a detecta fraudele comise asupra proprietăţii, Analele Universităţii din Craiova – Seria Ştiinţe Economice, vol. 6, pp. 2565 – 2572, Craiova. 2. DOMNIŞORU, S., CRISTEA, M. & VÎNĂTORU, S. (2008) The External Auditing Architecture of the Fixed Assets, Anul VI. Nr. 9, pp. 3 – 12, Bucureşti. 3. *** http://www.ifac.org/sites/default/files/downloads/a008-2010-iaasb-handbook -isa-200.pdf CONTACT Csosz Csongor, University „Babeş-Bolyai” Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Cluj Napoca, no. 58-60, Teodor Mihali street, Romania Department of Business Administration, Sfântu Gheorghe, no. 14, Stadionului street, Romania [email protected]

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KOZAK Tamas, MEDVÉNÉ SZABAD Katalin MAKING FORECASTS IN CASE OF OPENING NEW BUSINESSES Abstract: In our study we analysed the decision process related to a new greenfield commercial unit opening, which include, economic, financial, technical, and last but not least environmental aspects. Every business has the same objective: obtaining more favourable position in the supply chain, with the larger market share gain. In our country by imposing the trade impact studies, - this is a condition of approval of the investment project, our experiences in this area also benefited in the preparation of these types of feasibility studies. We also investigated how the retail chains interpretations of responsible corporate behaviour, and specifically what they are doing in achieving sustainable development. Important focus of the research, that how customers are sensitive of the environmental impact, environmental impact decisions of the goods

Keywords : commercial, investment, sustainability, environment, forecast. INTRODUCTION The literature of sales planning mainly covers the question of how to make trade forecasts by past data. For example, a few well-known method of this are that of planning on the basis of trade in goods, volume or price projections. It will demand analysis and planning of a completely different nature, if a commercial enterprise wants to invest in an unknown area, so to speak, it wants to open a new business. Nowadays, it is not just a question of management and controlling, but entrepreneurs have to make an impact study for getting authorization to open a commercial unit of more than 5000 square meters. Critical points of this impact study are the forecast on expected trade and the presentation of planned numbers and their accuracy. DETERMINING SALES DIRECTIONS After the enterprise surveyed its environment and inner resources, it must trace out its possible “ways”, on one of which the sales strategy of the enterprise can come to fruition. Considering the consistence requirement of the planning process these steps correlate, the strategic directions as planning options connect status quo to the vision of the enterprise, creating a bridge between its present and future. To this effect, the possible strategic set of tools is needed to be determined by one of the following methods: - By measuring financial and market stability, competitiveness and industrial characteristics the entrepreneur gets a picture about which planning philosophy is worthy of considering. Industrial characteristics can be

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determined by the “Porter’s Five Forces” model or the more advanced Porter – Grove model. The components of this model are the following:  Strength of existing competition  Strength of complementary branches  Power of costumers  Power of suppliers  Possibility of substitution  Potential rivals Compared to the classic Porter’s Five Forces model, the evaluation of complementary branches adds a new dimension. The elements of “PEST(EL)” analysis is suggested to be used for the aspects of stability. At companies where the performance of the whole economy, thus the developments of GDP has significant influence on sales expectations, it is rewarding to know the “source” of increase or decline in Gross Domestic Product. (For example, the manager of a small trade enterprise should get to know if the increase in GDP is controlled by either export or consumption. A company without full nationwide coverage in its activities should know what financial effects determine the economic performance and sales developments in its region or area of operation. For example, developments in the budget of the local government can significantly determine the spending power of the given region.) For the strategic level evaluation of the financial situation we can use the so-called DUPONT system’s elements covering profitability, asset efficiency and indebtedness. The success factors of competitiveness can be measured by reviewing the company resources and competences (so-called drivers) that determined the prior values. In determining the philosophy of planning there are four kinds of planning and action style:  Aggressive (strong financial situation, growing industry)  Defensive (weak competitiveness, instable environment)  Competitive (growing industry, relative market stability)  Conservative (financial reserves, competitiveness) In my opinion, the result of an analysis based on the aforementioned methods are basically orienting to the effect that the strategy of the company is based on 233

resources or competitiveness, or the future of the company is determined either by a dynamically changing market or a calculable macro-environment. To get a definite answer to this question, the aspects of evaluation must be compiled to suit for the comparison of internal and external factors. It helps to measure the company’s financial resources and reserves if such criterions of the macroeconomic environment are analyzed that may help or risk the housekeeping of the company. Measuring the relevant industrial and market factors helps to judge the internal resources and competences that determine the company’s competitiveness. The usable criterions may correspond to those that were used in the SWOT analysis, but we can enrich the evaluation by newer ones. If earlier, before the planning process the management and/or the owners have formulated the company’s vision, then in this phase of strategy creation it is reasonable to review and alter this vision as occasion requires. In this phase the affirmation or (re)formation of the vision may strengthen the reality of concepts and ambitions related to it. Before the next phase it is reasonable to examine the coherency, say the occasional contradictions can be filtered out by the comparison of the strategic and planning philosophies. PLANNING SALES ON OPERATIONAL LEVEL The planning of the sales begins after the company designated the strategic sale directions in accordance with the methods above, and the options related to these. Its steps are summarized below. DETERMINING THE CATCHMENT AREA One method for determining the catchment can be the allocation of so-called “driving time” zones. In this, for example, you can locate zones reachable in 30, in 30-60, or over 60 minutes. In each zone you should be able to evaluate, e.g. by micro-region, the spending power, the population and/or number of households, the regional and specific spending power. The population and the extent of spending power can be analyzed by zone, e.g. by micro-region; an estimation of sales must be made by the basic data collected in each zone. Table 1 contains those data that should be revealed during the analysis of each zone.

Table 1: Example for Zone Data Primary Minutes

Zone